How testing with users can cause us to talk more about things we're sick of talking about.

Here is an excerpt of an interview with David Liddle, whose team developed the Star system in 1978 here in Palo Alto,. The Star system was the forerunner of today's graphical user interfaces (GUIs) like the Mac and Windows.  

Question: You clearly were focused on how the software that you developed could create what is now often called the user experience. How did all that user involvement go over with programmers, who would be likely to enjoy designing limestone obelisks?

Liddle: Development using real testing was not all that smooth. Sometimes, an idea would seem to be settled. We would all agree on a prototype; then, Bill would try it out with real users, and we would find out that they had trouble with it. People on the team sometimes got upset. We'd have to go in and renegotiate something we had all thought was settled. Still, all in all, people did agree to be responsive, within all possible reason.

This is just something to keep in mind when we test out something with users and they inconveniently tell us our idea sucks. That's how it goes... But look what you get.