Re: It's not just designers
"People in IT rarely seem to be interested in spending time watching what users actually do." - My team have been burnt badly repeatedly by this, and with every new project I ask, very specifically, for one thing, and that is "Let me watch users and let me talk to them. Or hire a decent analyst." Sadly, I'm never allowed to do that. And as my role is a developer, my estimates of money wasted by not spending a day or two with the users (or, for that matter, difference between the customer and the user) is not worth consideration as it is none of my business to talk money.