Validating Software Solutions

As you may be starting to understand, HCI is intimately connected to people through the data we gather on them. A computer is an awesome tool for gathering user research data, and we design computer software in order to capitalize not only on this collection of data but on how this data feeds back into the software itself. User research data on its own will not help an HCI designer create great software as it is just ones and zeros, but when used alongside an HCI designer's intuition, curiosity, and understanding of their users, data can give us an in-focus picture. The computer cannot create on its own (at least, not yet); it is only a reflection of the solutions we as HCI designers create and code. Software solutions are fundamentally better when we can incorporate the data we have on our users, the data we gather along the way about our users...