Lucy Suchman’s research, especially her work with front-end operators at Xerox, has profoundly influenced the way we understand whether technology design meets human needs.

Human behavior is complex and is not within the designer’s preset process. This shows that design must take into account user preferences and operating habits, rather than relying solely on the system’s internal logic to plan operating steps.

Suchman pointed out that predefined operating steps alone often cannot meet the needs of actual operations because users will encounter various unpredictable situations in reality. Designers should ensure that technical systems can flexibly adapt to various usage situations by observing and understanding users’ real usage scenarios.

In the previous video, we reviewed Suchman’s theory, especially in the Xerox listening study, where she revealed how traditional technology design failed to adapt to users’ real needs through observation of operators. This reminds us that when designing technology, we must focus on people’s operating methods and thinking habits.

shuoning Liang