Sarvas: User studies are a waste of money

5.6.2012 10.00-12.00 Risto Sarvas: User studies are a waste of money!
Location: Aalto University School of Economics, Arkadia building, Lapuankatu 6, 1st floor, OP Pohjola (E-107).

“To be honest, often at Futurice our design relies fully on ‘genius design’: the designer has a vision that s/he executes quickly together with the developers. There are practically no user studies and still the end results are most often quite successful. For example, out of the 25 latest mobile applications designed by Futurice in four different app stores the average rating is 4.2 out of 5 stars. In my talk I will share my thoughts on when ‘genius design’ is the best, and when it simply is not enough. I will also open the discussion into how user-centric design should perhaps be shaped in a world of agile development, small and fast projects, and an increasing interest in quantifiable user data analytics.” — Risto Sarvas

Risto Sarvas is the Head of UX and Service Design at Futurice. Futurice (http://www.futurice.com) is a medium size software vendor/consultancy building mobile and web services as well as enterprise systems. Futurice’s design force consists of roughly of dozen people, which is about one tenth of the company. Risto is also a docent at Aalto University and has a background in research in digital media.