The Poverty of User-Centered Design
http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~adillon/blog/archives/29/comment-page-1#comment-60470

Dillon, Andrew
Infomatters
2008

Abstract:

In the dim distant past, some of us used to distinguish our work from the masses by declaring proudly that we were ‘user-centered’. At one time this actually meant you did things differently and put a premium on the ability of real people to exploit a product or service. While the concern remains, and there are many examples of designs that really need to revisit their ideas about users, I find the term ‘user-centered’ to have little real meaning anymore.