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Treat users well.  Treat them as if they are human.  Perhaps they are . (With thanks to Emerson) BRENDA DERVIN at

Treat users well.  Treat them as if they are human.  Perhaps they are . (With thanks to Emerson) BRENDA DERVIN at Annual Meeting Central Ohio Chapter American Society for Information Science & Technology Wednesday Evening, June 20th, 2007 Columbus, Ohio ©Brenda Dervin, 2007

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Treat users well.  Treat them as if they are human.  Perhaps they are . (With thanks to Emerson) BRENDA DERVIN at

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  1. Treat users well.  Treat them as if they are human.  Perhaps they are.(With thanks to Emerson) BRENDA DERVINat Annual Meeting Central Ohio Chapter American Society for Information Science & Technology Wednesday Evening, June 20th, 2007 Columbus, Ohio ©Brenda Dervin, 2007

  2. Treat cats well.  Treat them as if they are human.  Cats KNOW they are. ALPHA CAT Ariel

  3. HER factotum MAX

  4. THEIR assistant

  5. AND HER FACTOTUM.....

  6. WHY??? Treat users well.  Treat them as if they are human.  Perhaps they are. EMERSON'S ORIGINALTreat people well.Treat them as if they are real.Perhaps they are.

  7. 40 YEAR OBSESSIONHow to change systems so users & non-usersby whatever names we call them*patrons *users *audiences*citizens *patients *employees*customers *viewers *readers *clients *students *non-users ARE AT THE HEARTS OF OUR SYSTEMS INCLUDING* our procedures for studying them*our ways of intersecting with them*our structures for serving them

  8. HOW TO MOVE FROM...

  9. TO THIS

  10. A CONFESSION* Given many ideas for what I should talk about tonight by different people-Web 2.0-Second Life-the OSU IMLS user study-the dialogue between 3 fields project-Sense-Making Methodology I AM GOING TO BE BOTHOBEDIENT& DISOBEDIENT

  11. WE ARE UNDERGOING THE LARGESTFASTEST MOVINGPERHAPS MOST CHAOTICREVOLUTION IN THE HUMAN SITUATIONIN HISTORY WITH NO END IN SIGHTIT WILL CONTINUE UNTIL *the micro-chip cannot get any smallerand/or*the interests of those driving the revolution are curtailed

  12. IT'S FUTURE IS... NOT WRITTEN&CANNOT BE

  13. IT INVOLVES A MIND-BOGGLING MOVE TOWARD *decentralizationof knowledge and control *collaborationamid resistance to collaboration*user controlamid user overload *experimentation amid change with no end in sight

  14. YOU HAVE EVERY REASONTO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HEADACHE WE ALL DO

  15. BUT FORGIVE ME TONIGHT I WANT TO LOOK BENEATH THESE SURFACESUSERSFOR THE FIRST TIMECAN OPENLY MOVE AGAINST OUR WILL

  16. WE SHARE A COMMON STRUGGLE*no matter what our field WE THINK EXPERTISE MATTERSBUT IT MATTERS only to those to whom it matters

  17. THIS IS NOT A NEW STRUGGLE *it permeates the entire history of our understandings of users and audiences BUT*it is hard for us to look at*it feels like we will lose something if we acknowledge it

  18. AS A RESULT.... WE ARE ASTONISHED AT WHAT IS HAPPENING ALL AROUND US *chat-lines, blogs, wikis*second life and the creation of other virtual lives*web 2.0 and the proliferating uses of e-technologies for decentralization, user-control, and going-with-the-flow *the apparent "flight from expertise" [THANKS TO MICHAEL GORMAN, FORMER PRESIDENT, ALA]

  19. BUT IN ACTUALITY USERS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN*recalcitrant*uppity*disdainfulBECAUSE SURVIVAL DEMANDS IT LIFE IS NOT WRITTEN BUT WE HAVE TOO OFTEN CALLED USERS *lazy*ignorant*illiterate

  20. WE HAVE DEVELOPED EDIFICES OF EXPERTISE BASED ON MODERNIST PRINCIPLES OF KNOWLEDGE LEAVING BEHIND and MARGINALIZING THE HUMAN SIDE OF BEING HUMAN

  21. THIS HAS LED TO STRIKING TECHNICAL SUCCESSES amid DEEP HUMAN FAILURES THANKS TO:Toulmin, COSMOPOLIS: The Hidden agenda of modernity, 1990

  22. I WILL ARGUE TONIGHT THAT AMONG OUR DEEP HUMAN FAILURES are *a history of building information/communication systems that either pander to or ignore the human side of human beings *an inability to understand why most mandated users historically circumvent, reinvent, co-opt, resist, and/or struggle with our systems and rarely behave the ways experts expect they should or predict they will

  23. THE CULPRIT...THE INFORMATION BRICK

  24. OUR ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE "OTHERS"

  25. THE PEOPLE BUCKETS INTO WHICH THE INFORMATION BRICKS ARE TOSSED

  26. THE PEOPLE WE EXPECT...

  27. THE PEOPLE WE TOO OFTEN THINK WE GET.... &^%$#@)*

  28. Empty recipient buckethead, waiting to be filled

  29. OUR BASIC THEORIES OF WHY OTHERS DON'T HEED US

  30. …..The leaky buckethead

  31. …..The recalcitrant buckethead

  32. FROM THE USER'S POINT OF VIEW WE HAVE KNOWN FOR A LONG TIME THAT....

  33. USERS -- EVEN US --ARE REAL PEOPLE...MUDDLING INTO THE UNKNOWN

  34. USERS LIVE -- EVEN WE EXPERTS -- IN THE WORLD OF THE EVERYDAY WHERE ...the center does not hold [W.B. YEATS]...there is no absolute certainty...choice is obligatory & error inevitable [EPSTEIN, NY REVIEW OF BOOKS]*expertise is always suspect*information & emotion merge

  35. WHO LIVE IN THE WORLD OF....

  36. SO DO WE BUT FOR US OUR*dreams*muddles*struggles*obligations*needs INVOLVE STRUCTURES & CONTENTSOF EXPERTISE

  37. USERS RARELY INCLUDE US ON THEIR USUAL LIFE PATHS detour to system usual life path

  38. THE BIGGEST GAPSBETWEEN USERSIS NOT BETWEEN USER SUB-GROUPS but between EXPERTSandEVERYDAY USERS[Baer]

  39. HOW WE MOST OFTEN RESPOND TO THESE USUALLY UNDISCUSSED REALITIES

  40. SIX COMMUNICATION LOGICS1. MY INFORMATION IS RIGHT

  41. WHOOPS, NOT WORKING...2. MUST MAKE MY INFORMATION PACKAGE BETTER

  42. WHOOPS, NOT WORKING....FIND WAYS TO DESIGN BETTER INFORMATION PACKAGES FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE BY PUTTING PEOPLEIN BOXES3. DEMOGRAPHY & TRAIT BOXES4. LIFE STYE, INTEREST, SITUATION BOXES5. CULTURE & COMMUNITY BOXES

  43. WHOOPS, NOT WORKING....6. LET SPONTANEOUS COMMUNICATION FLOWTHIS IS THE DECENTRALIZING THAT NOW SEEMS TO BE TAKING OVER WHY?IN THE ABSENCE OF US BEING COMMUNICATIVE, THIS SPONTANEITY IS COMMUNICATIVE EVEN IF A CACOPHONOUS TOWER OF BABEL THAT BREEDS REPLICATION OF HEGEMONY & STEREOTYPING

  44. ALL THE LOGICS ABOVE WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST BUT THEY ARE NOT ENOUGH

  45. AS PRACTITIONERS WE WORK IN AND FOR SYSTEMS*service structures*interface designs*normative practicesBASED ON A HOST OF UNWORKABLE ASSUMPTIONS

  46. AND STRUGGLE DAILY WITH A BIG CONTRADICTION.... *on the one hand: the needs and demands of the system *on the other the fact that these are NOT genuinely people-oriented

  47. THOSE OF US DOING USER STUDIES FOR DECADES HAVE LONG KNOWN THAT......USERS SEARCH AND IN WAYS THAT SERVE THEIR SITUATIONS & CONTEXTSAS THEY SEE THEM

  48. ...USERS ARE NOT WELL PREDICTED IN DEMOGRAPHIC AND TRAIT BOXES, BUT RATHER BASED ON SYSTEM-ENCOUNTERING MOMENTS OF NEEDING AND ACTING

  49. ...USERS REACH OUT & USE ANYTHING LABELED AS EXPERTISE ONLY WHEN THEY SEE ITS VALUE ON THEIR TERMS

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