Always a lover of the contrarian point of view, I appreciate this posting on the CHI-WEB list reminding us not to mistake ourselves for every-user:
One of the sad things I realized while doing some testing of boo is that I
am not part of its target audience – alas, I am no longer young and hip. I
realized this after watching a couple of 20-somethings put up with its
technical glitches because they genuinely thought it was cool. The lesson I
took from this is that us middle-aged usability professionals should not be
so quick to decide that we know what all customers want. It’s possible –
just possible, mind you – that boo understood their own market better than I
do.