It’s hard to get clients to spend money on user research though, especially when their rationale is to build it first and let people tell them what works or doesn’t.
To some extent that is possible, but if something doesn’t work for users they aren’t likely to return and tell you about it.

That’s like asking someone to read the first draft of your book and tell you how to fix it. What if you wrote a science fiction novel, and then handed it to a Romance reader?

The simplicity of the Flip cameras is a huge selling point for me. As you mention, there are no mistakes to be made with this camera. You just point, record, and plug in. I love it.

Let’s be honest, today’s internet users have the attention span of an A.D.D. gnat, myself including. I don’t want to take the time to watch a video, screencast or page through a presentation. I want to scan the page for helpful information, proactively dive in at my own pace and quickly find the answers I am looking for to make a decision.

I like the less is less of approach at times.

Just extending that a bit, great UX is about the limited features that enable a limitless experience for your target audience – that’s what makes experiences insanely brilliant.

Nice, I really like this article Francisco.

Jason, you’re so right – much of what we do as people doesn’t actually change in the value we’re looking for, it’s how we get that value that changes as the experience becomes easier and more enjoyable. Take travel – years ago it’d be hours on the back of a horse, now you hop on a train or plane… but it’s all travel.

Markus.

You may enjoy this article from Website Magazine reviewing usability tools http://bit.ly/32mqlQ

I am affiliated with usertesting.com but the article covers several tools.

Amanda

For example, people are likely to always need to manage their money (more and more so as time passes) and they are also likely to bank with more than one bank, so Mint strikes it well there.

I think it is also very important not to focus too much on the ‘temporary’ and ‘fashionable’ user needs, as fashion tends to die out quickly, while it creates bloated UIs which confuse people and take attention away from the core purpose.

The Idea of self, the idea of being able to solve a problem…its so much more important than following what has worked in the past. Every website has a unique problem to address, which calls for a unique solution.

This is what I try to tell my clients when I consult them, don’t look as much as what is being done. Tell me what your looking for and I’ll solve the problem.

At some point during the progress of our society, bells and whistles of new technology overshadowed designers’ skills in understanding and empathizing end-users.

May be it was because new technologies used to trigger a primal reaction that grabbed consumers’ attention upon which businesses could quickly turn a profit. Many, if not most, of the basic technology we rely on have reached a steady state. We no longer upgrade our PCs for each new version of Windows. We prefer the Wii not because of its GPU power but the freedom of movements that it bring. Yes, the Wii includes many technological advancements, but it was the right application of those technologies that makes it does wonders.

We no longer just want selections. There are too many of them. We want matches to our needs. Instead of looking for an opportunity to justify adoption of a new technology, why not look outside our offices and find out how we can meaningfully apply solutions that we already have?