Innovations can become routines, yes. And breakdowns caused by such things as noise, overuse, technical issues may force a change in routine. But also cultural and non-functional factors: a new company/brand, a new device, a desin idea, a good marketing campaign, or as we have seen with twitter, the Oprah effect can also result in new/changed routines. I view social media as informed by both technical and cultural (social) forces…

On mult users, yes, and not only by demo but also by psychological and communication styles and competencies.

Use of ethnography is interesting. In some ways shouldnt be a necessity w/ social media, for the simple reason that social media users are real, and present. In contrast to other kinds of interaction problems (conventional software, products, etc), the designer cant be present among users except through an interview of sorts.

In some ways its the very fact that social media are designed most of the time by people who use social media *a lot*, there’s a tendency to overlook mult user and different user types. The transparency of social media to both users and to its designers can create a false sense of confidence… (imho)

“Structures still empty of users are still structures. Structures inhabited lead to habits, in time.” For me this is similar to the relationship between innovations and routines, which tend to build off of each other over time. An innovation that gets worked into regular activity becomes a routine. There are lots of very good recent examples of this: email (going back 15 yrs), facebook, twitter, etc. all started out as something new and innovative. Eventually they turned into routines. But often a breakdown occurs in the routine and it gets replaced; myspace might be an example of this for some.

“My own personal take on this is that one must first admit to multiple users and kinds of users.” Yes, exactly. It’s interesting that the field refers to itself as “user experience” rather than a plural form. @Dan’s point speaks to this as well, ethnography is great for connecting to different kinds of users. I’d recommend looking at the Digital Youth Project for a good comprehensive example (http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/). They’ve done a great job of describing some of the different ways that youth use new media.

Depends on what you mean by “knowing.” It’s really hard for people who produce something to be fully in the mindset of those who are users but not producers. Once you step into that author/designer role, your relationship with the thing changes. But there are great methods like ethnography for reconnecting with the user/not-producer experience. The key is to have the awareness that this reconnecting process is necessary. I.e., to know what you no longer know!