About extreme users

We (hopefully) design with users in mind.

When we go out to research, we are looking to understand a few things: what users do, how they do it, why they do it. Or what they say, do, think and feel. What hurts.

Research resources are limited. How can we make the best use of the time we have? Enter extreme users.

In them, the pains of the process pulse. They hurt so much that it is common for them to solve their problems in alternative, unconventional ways. They are at the end of the normal distribution curve.

I thought the purpose of mapping extreme users was to focus on them from start to finish of a project, from empathy to testing.

The d.school literature, however, suggests that we apply this technique to better understand the situation. And that's it. "Look for the extremes in all of us," the school says.

When designing, we think of common users.

A kind of zoom in/zoom out.