Delivering the best ‘Experience’, but at what cost?
We have grown from User-Centered Design to Humanity Centered Design. Now, it is the time to focus on ‘Humanitarian Design”
The world we live in today is not so different from what we had hundreds of years ago. We seek comfort, ease, and simplicity in the tasks we do, objects we use and the environment we spend time in. The pandemic taught us to work from home, set up the home offices, we went on a shopping spree to buy the best, most comfortable, and ergonomic furniture.
Gamers playing for hours want an ergonomic mouse, headset, keyboard, desk, and chair that can provide utmost comfort. Designers are working day and night, churning out the best possible designs. Researching and testing for months, just to provide a great ‘Experience’ to the user.
Ergonomics originated in Greece during the era of Hippocrates (460–370 BC). The Designing of Tools, Building, Safety Mechanisms, Workload Minimisation etc. was all part of the ancient Greek culture. The aim was to have a better life for the citizens, increase the efficiency and quality of life. Humans have always been trying to ‘optimise’ the way they work and live. Evolution has hard-wired us to attain ‘perfection’ as well as made us understand the important natural law, ‘survival of the fittest’. So, how are things different from what was there centuries ago and now?
If you look around carefully and observe the patterns, you will realise that there is one major parameter, that has overshadowed all other aspects of ‘Design for betterment’, and that is ‘Profit’. There could be a difference of opinion or perception on this, but you can still read on :)
Why is UX/CX important? Why do big businesses want to focus on UX and CX? Why does it matter to us as a Designer? We need money to survive, to take care of our families, to fulfil our dreams and wishes. Life is a journey, and money is what makes it possible to complete this journey. In earlier days, the focus or motivation for creating a good experience was to make this journey smoother. As time passed by, the Industrial Revolution made production and consumption easier, simpler, and reachable. The cost? Rise of capitalism, materialism and consumerism, exploitation of the working class, pollution, child labor, diseases, environmental damage, and whatnot.
No doubt it had its positive impacts, but those were primarily enablers for what was coming next, the technological advancements that were possible after the Industrial Revolution. It paved the way for the Digital Revolution, which we are now a part of. UX was in a primitive state in the early 20th century with no heed given to it. A few instances of ‘Good UX’ were bubbling at different places at different times with quotable names like Frederick Winslow Taylor, Toyota, Henry Dreyfuss, and even Walt Disney.
As technology grew exponentially, diversity in the ‘Journey’ changed. What was earlier accessible to the privileged, labs and universities was now at disposal of common people. In the early 90s, Professor Don Norman rose to fame and became the Father of UX, and had the very first person to have UX in his job title when he joined Apple as their UX Architect. There are few other key names associated with Design like Dieter Rams, Jakob Nielsen and Alan Cooper whose contributions have been phenomenal.
With far reaching Internet, Smart Phones, and the increase in competition, the demand for better Design was imminent. Big corporations started taking UX as their top-most priority, new Design related jobs and roles started pouring in the Market. And why not, as UX proved to give them a whopping 9,900% ROI! User Experience, Visual Design, Service Design, Prototyping, User Research, Usability, Accessibility and Inclusion, the terms which we have never heard of, flooded the job listings. Soon, the boundaries began to diminish, and then we got the Product Designers who are capable of executing multiple roles/stages of Design single-handedly.
What are they trying to do? Make life of end users better. How are they doing it? Making Experiences immersive and addictive, by infiltrating their lives and minds, to gather as much data as possible, in the name of personalisation and recommendation. Data being sold to advertisers, marketers, agencies to have more targeted reach of more spam. The stigma of not having followers, likes or views on social content is destroying the lives of young people, while Designers are brainstorming in their lavish studios, trying to find out more ways to keep the users ‘hooked on’ to the products, generate more revenue for their customers, keep their jobs secured and get hefty packages. In the name of Empathy, Designers were supposed to step in user’s shoes, but now, they are stepping into their minds, personal lives and emotions. But at what cost? Everything.
It started with frugal inventions, to have quick workarounds for tasks that could be made simpler. As more and more people started getting benefit from these ‘Designs’, it became mainstream. Upscaled, distributed and organised, people started preferring ‘good designs’ over ‘bad designs’. And it should always work this way only. Bad designs can cost you your life!
Situations and people change when monetisation comes into picture. People don’t leave any chance to monetise whatever they can get their hands on. From writing books on ‘How to be a millionaire’ to apps like ‘I Am Rich’ to even weirder stuff like selling Fresh Air!! So why not sell Experience? Users want a great experience and they are willing to shell out the money without hesitation. But how do we know our Users better and deeper? Contextual Inquiry, Surveys, Interviews are all old school now. In this era of technological advancements and Information Explosion, new doorways have opened up to ‘know’ your User better. Social Media, Browsing History, GeoTracking, Food Orders, Shopping patterns, Non-Invasive BCI Devices, Likes, Shares, Tweets, and now, with IoT enabled stuff like Water Bottles, Smart Appliances, Fitness accessories, both the Digital and Physical footprints, will give you a plethora of information about the Users. Every utility or comfort for the User is costing them a lot more than just money.
We are losing the meaning of being a Human. We exploited the nature, flora and fauna, now we are exploiting the entire Humankind. We don’t care about all this stuff, because our thoughts are limited to our life span of 60–70 years, of which, we’ll work for 50% of our lifetime. So it won’t matter as these impacts are visible in decades. It will impact our next generations, for which we are not bothered at all. Not everyone can be a visionary, looking the far fetched consequences of our actions. It is time now for all of us to rethink the way we work, the way we think, and the way we Design. Now is the time for Humanitarian Design.
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