The problem, says Cooper, is that users and programmers think very differently. Users just want to accomplish a task, and have no interest in understanding how the computer works. Programmers want and need to understand the computer on a deep level, and find it hard to design software to meet the needs of people who don't.
Cooper says we need to abandon the idea that there are "power users" and "naive users". Most users are in fact very smart people who just don't think like computers. Cooper's solution is to use 'personas', made up users intended to represent real users with very specific goals, and to design software to meet only those specific users' goals. Design must occur before any code is written, otherwise it is too late.
This isn't a manual on how to use Cooper's goal oriented design methods, but after reading this book it is hard not to be convinced that such methods, or equally radical ones, are needed. Cooper may not have all the answers, but he surely has part of the answer, and is asking all the right questions.
According to this book, the inmates are everywhere and as is the main premise of this book, they are in charge of not only shaping the asylum known as software design, but also our world. Cooper uses various anecdotal examples throughout the book to illustrate his ideas and views on technological design. Focusing entirely on how it has run amuck. Many of the examples are painfully obvious and basic.
While points are well made and key to adding to ones thought process about designing software and better ways to bring product to market. Cooper misses the boat with regards to some of the realities of business. I found Cooper's ideas a little too idealistic with little suggestion in terms of comprimise or strategic change.
Methodology also seems to be off as book is all general impression based on observation and personal experience.
Finally, If you are looking for a reminder about good common sense and a prompt on how to make your customer king, you'll find this a helpful read.
I don't think you can put a price tag on the amount of damage this book and the attitude it promotes has cost us.
On the one hand, the examples presented are insightful and on target; on the other hand, Mr. Cooper is a usability consultant, and his goal is to convince you that you need a usability consultant. My company drank the kool-aid, and has even paid for training services based on his work.
Part of convincing you that you need a usability consultant is convincing you that your programmers will be congenitally incapable of doing good UI without one.
Now, of course, human interface engineering departments eat that up, since it justifies their existence. Human interface engineering departments are a Good Thing. Having two teams (which must collaborate on producing a product that the market will want) at each others throats, waging political wars and each casually making the assumption that the other is incompetent does not lead to an effective organization. But it is the organization that Mr. Cooper's advice can easily lead to.
I can say categorically that our product's user interface is *worse*, not better, as a result of the attitudes Mr. Cooper promotes - not due to inattention, but due to the fact that in many cases were everyone agreed improvement was needed, the mutual animosity between the HIE department and the Development department was so great that the decision ended in a stalemate and nothing was done. We are only now pulling away from that era.
Read it warily, if you are thinking about how to set up your organization, and remember that it is written with an agenda that may not be set up to benefit you.