Sunday, May 4, 2014

At popular request: A Wrap-up Rap

Wrap-up Rap:  Susan Dray, CHI 2014

(Student Volunteers and Audience in red)


From down Panama way
Where I live today
Comes another visit
From the Other Dr. Dray.
Last time I rapped
‘twas ‘bout ethnography
but this time is different
as you shall soon see.

To tell you again ‘bout my favorite lessons
Things I have learned about our profession
Things learned from life and not just CHI sessions
This rap’s a wrap up of this expression.

If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!
If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!

You and me, we translate
This is lesson number one
‘Tween many different people
and it’s often very fun

But it also takes
Quite a lot of skill
At least if we’re going
To translate well.

It takes quite a lot
Of intelligence BUT
Not just the head kind
But both head and gut.

So we need to be sure to
Take care and help each other
‘coz we all need support
and it’s really not a bother

(some of my rhymes
may seem a tad cheesy
but please forgive me,
coz this rappin’, it ain’t easy!)

If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!
If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!

We must learn from the world
That’s lesson number two
Which means that you can learn from me
And I can learn from you

And too from places far away
Tho’ sometimes that is harder
But if we learn from everything
It’s bound to make us smarter.

If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!
If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!

Number three is ‘bout our thinking.
Black and white will just not do.
For the world is more complex
and more nuanced and so you
must find ways to make things clear
yes, that certainly is true,
but over simplying? that we must not do.

To take complexity and tame it
And to make it understood
Is a skill that’s not the same as
Simply stating that it’s good.

For, though pundits may not see it,
When they oversimplify
Our profession is diminished
In their audiences’ eyes

Which can make it that much harder
To make traction in places where they’ve been
So I cannot state it stronger:
this kind of thinking is a sin!

If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!
If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!

And now for the next
In the process we must trust
For with people at the center
And our teams onboard we must
Stay focused on the process
For we know that when we’re through
Our product will be better
Because that is what we do.

If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!
If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!

Our final lesson’s easy
For when all is said and done
We work and learn much better
When we are having fun

This goes as much for us
As it does for our teams
And our students and all others
Including bosses and deans.

Indeed, this rap’s an expression of this thought
For though some think a woman of my years should not be caught
A’ rappin’ to an audience of younger folks, it’s true
That this rap’s a wrap that’s been a lot of fun for me – for you?

I hope you will take these lessons all to heart
And put them into practice so that you can play your part
So I leave with one last thought I hope will help you to recall.
If the users, they can’t use your stuff, it does not work at all.

If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!
If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!
If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!

If the user can’t use it, then it doesn’t work at all!

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