This week in ux-clinic: Designing for novices and experts

This week in the ux-clinic discussion group:

We’re a start-up of veteran designers and software developers, building a cutting edge – home music system (think wireless). One big debate we’re having is how to approach the problem of satisfying both user populations: novice consumers and expert audiophiles. Both user groups are important to us, but their needs, and the assumptions we can make in designing for them, are so divergent, we’re struggling with how best to approach the problem.

Should we:

A) Figure out now who is more important, and design for them

B) Focus on the happy middle of design problems / features that both groups want done as simply as possible

C) Deal with this one feature / decision at a time

D) Something we haven’t thought of

I’d love to hear how other folks have dealt with this problem, even if just “we made it up as we went”

– Signed, SPD, split-personality design