I’ve decided that it is all about perspective. People want what they want, and because they think differently from one another, they want different things. From my own experience I can speak of system integration projects. It usually breaks down like this: The system integrator/solution provider wants to do the minimum possible on a fixed-price contract, because that is how they maintain their profit margin.The client-side project manager wants the system delivered on time and to budget.
The end user clients want something that is better than they had before, preferably delivered in accordance to their stated and implicit needs.
The information architect/experience designer wants to see something delivered that meets actual rather than perceived end user client needs.
None of these needs are necessarily mutually exclusive - that is, there is usually world enough and time for the system to be both useful (meeting requirements) and usable (meeting end user needs in a humane and surviveable way). The delivery of these needs depends on adequate and transparent requirements, which is a posting for another day. The only advice that I can offer the usability professional on this that I can honestly say is worth anything is this: be mindful of perspective.
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