Originally Posted by
FREDAcheck
I think it is important to have someone looking at the user experience (by talking to users) separate from the system designers and coders.
When the designers/coders talk to users, they tend to look for confirmation that their design is correct, and ignore any evidence that users don't like it. Users that don't like their wonderful design are "stupid", stuck in the past and unwilling to change.
Completely agree - unfortunately, many people "selling themselves" as "AGILE" or "SCRUM" or even "User Experience Designers" are all too often, just waterfall people who fancy themselves a bit trendy, but invariably end up doing what the client (read: metoffice in this case) wants irrespective of what the actual consumers need. The only successful people I know, have to persuade the client to trust them first to get a blank canvas and start afresh. When you're trying to work for a large organisations it is very tough to fight your battles... Especially when the people at the top don't understand the principle of letting others make decisions that are best for them... The few I have seen doing this well however, have ended up revamping old systems in incredible ways!