practice accounts

Relevant to our discussion yesterday about researching the people and practices surrounding technological use, and not the technologies, themselves:

Observation forces us to focus on the actions that we are trying to support through design, rather than the things we will ultimately produce. Bill Moggridge, cofounder of IDEO, talks about designing “verbs not nouns” to characterize this focus on behavior rather than objects. This approach to design roots it in human activity—and demands a high degree of sensitivity about what people are actually trying to do and what they enjoy.

[ Jane Fulton Suri + IDEO :: Thoughtless Acts? (pp 168-169) ]