In, Don’t do what your users say [the broken link was removed], Hanford Lemoore, provides a nice illustration of why customer focus is important but must be done with care.
in UI design it’s important to understand that what a user says and what a user is telling you can be two different things.
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I got a good variety of comments back. Constructive thoughts. But I noticed an interesting trend: The most common thing suggested was “Add an undo to the game.” It seems almost everyone who tested the game had asked for an undo option.
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I wanted to find the root cause of the “undo” request. I had some friends of mine host a playtest party at their house
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During the party I got a lot of great feedback. Just watching someone play my game and see them learn from their mistakes was an incredible experience. But mainly I was watching closely to see if and why anyone was going to request an undo feature. What I saw was surprising.
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After the user test is was clear to me that the root cause for undo requests was that the controls were too sensitive for the average player. There were a few other things that were revealed too. People really loved solving the puzzles in the game — the first time. But if they had to restart, they really did not enjoy redoing the puzzles they had already solved. This was another cause of wanting an undo in the game.
This is a great example of looking for the root cause and going to the gemba. You must focus on customers but you must bring thought into how you react. Just doing what they say is likely a bad idea. Ignoring them is also bad. But listening and learning and then adjusting is good.
Related: Pleasing Customers – Confusing Customer Focus – What Could we do Better? – Good Customer Service Example – Find the Root Cause
