Beyond human centered design?

The concept of the user and user-centered design is central to the history of SIGCHI and the culture the Designing Interactive Systems conferences. The idea of the user and designing around user requirements and contexts of use were a radical development in relation to a culture of computing that had evolved around scarce computing power to focus on efficient use of these resources and the needs of computing technicians. But today does a diminished view of the user, and corporate cowardice, leave people short-changed with respect to the design of new products? Is user research helping designers to really understand the people for who they are designing, or blinkering designers view of possible solutions? Is user-centered design ensuring that products fit the needs and contexts of users, or acting as a bulwark to qualitative developments in interface design? How should we re-imagine humans in user-centered design?There will be four panellists in total, with a balance between practitioners, theorists, research agencies, commentators, and client 'user' representatives.