This presentation had it all -- dancing, audience participation, jokes, and a great talk. Very insightful and Jared kept the audience engaged throughout.

Great mind and great moves!

Jared is a good showman. But his SXSW-I pitch wasn't so much uninteresting as it was dangerous. First, he claimed that placebos work 60% of the time, regardless of the illness -- this must've been exciting news to everyone in the audience with a loved one dying of cancer. More to the point, he claimed that there has never been any evidence in support of the value of a user-centered design (UCD) approach. This is contradicted by every presentation made at HFES, UPA, CHI, STC, and ASIST in the last, say, 20 years wherein the authors demonstrated that they had employed a UCD approach, and their product would've led to more user errors had they shipped without employing those methods. After 55 minutes of "supporting" the claim that the age of UCD is dead, Jared ended with three rules to live/design by, and one was "collect plenty of user feedback." Plus, in his recent "Userability Podcast #5 - Just One UX Method" (http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2009/03/23/userability-podcast-5-just-one-ux-method/) he says that the most important thing in design is for everybody on the team "to have regular access to people out there -- to see the users and have regular access to them." So which is it, Jared? Doth I protest too much? Actually, I doth hate the thought of 1000 "beginners" leaving SXSW-I with the words "UCD is dead" ringing in their ears. Oh, and I rated his delivery less than perfect because of the Beyonce "Single Ladies (put a ring on it)" video -- his snarky, baby-boomer version of the school-yard "If you love it (UCD), why doncha' marry it?" You bet I love UCD. Dogmatic pursuit of it? Never. The Only Way? Nope. But for me and everyone who's not convinced he/she is the next Steve Jobs -- to quote Beyonce, "Irreplaceable."

@randolphbias I think you might be splitting hairs here. Spool was making a bold statement to make a point. I don't think anyone left the room thinking he meant that we should throw UCD out and just rely on our own intuition to make design decisions. I think what he was saying was that any sweeping, "follow the recipe" approach to the user experience is not going to be successful. I liked his metaphor of a user experience designer being like a chef or a plumber, meaning that the only way you're going to learn the right way of doing it is by experimenting and failing, or through sharing tricks like magicians do. Skill is developed through experience and UCD techniques are just one tool we should use. There may be some new practitioners who think that there is a "correct" way of doing things, but though using UCD techniques can be one tool in your toolbox, you shouldn't be dogmatic about it. UCD was a step in the right direction, but it's not the be all and end all.

So,what did he really mean when he said there has never been any evidence in support of the value of UCD? Plus, I've missed all the articles/speakers advocating dogmatic pursuit of UCD.