(These are my notes from John’s talk at the Intel HCPI 2 conference.)

John Grimes – IIT
Buried Assumptions and Borrowed Problems

Hands down, the best talk of the conference.

Here are my notes:
Q: If everything can do everything, then what should do what (meaning that the computer chips in every product today make it difficult to decide what functionality to include)?
A: Learn how people live their lives.

For designers to hold their own against finance, marketing and engineering, we must have our own, independent base of knowledge about the user.

“We only observe to change”

Design:

Surveillance
Behavior modification

We don’t have to be right, only useful.

John is developing a DTD for developing a compelling story.

Tangible Knowledge – an industry consortium for user research (Can anyone find a URL for this? I can’t.)