ees68@cornell.edu | Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab
[1] Rothstein, P. and M. T. Shirey. “User-centred Research.” Design Philosophy Papers 1 (2004).
May + June 2009
interactions
I listened to a talk by the head of a prominent design school recently. He explained that the school’s philosophy is to train students to analyze the needs of their users in order to design reasonable products. Ethnographies, focus groups, cognitive modeling: Interaction design, at least, has become a process dedicated to catering to the user. It seems as though most designers and educators agree that user-centered design is simply the right way to do things, and a recent study confirms its pervasiveness [1]. It’s almost a religion in our design schools, but it is in fact an incomplete philosophy that lacks a sense of responsibility for concerns other than those of the immediate end user.
Although we might wish for word processors and faucets that are more intuitive, as we look around in the world, it’s easy to see daunting, more serious problems: polluted water, war, excessive atmospheric carbon dioxide, a pressing economic crisis. There’s no question that these issues are, in general, the most serious challenges facing us today. They threaten our very existence. But designers have made scant headway in intervening and creating solutions to these sorts of problems, and I believe it’s because of a misguided focus on the user. An example may help to illustrate.
Imagine a designer tasked to improve a store’s shopping-bag system. Years ago, a big company might have focused on reducing costs as the No. 1 criterion for a design task like this, but imagine that for our task, the company has chosen a modern, user-centric approach in the redesign of its bag system. Realizing, perhaps, that a bag that meets the user’s needs is more likely to encourage repeat business, the designer immerses herself in the experience of the store’s customers. She conducts interviews, assembles cultural probes, and does targeted user observation. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if the final design were a thick, disposable plastic bag. It would meet the user’s needs of being inconspicuous, robust, lightweight, and even comfortable to hold when loaded.
The problem here, of course, is that disposable plastic bags are clogging landfills and creating air pollution through their manufacture. These two (and there are many more) adverse side effects of the design solutions are far bigger problems than those experienced by a typical retail customer at checkout. Our user-centered design process has answered questions of convenience, comfort, and cost, but created problems that are far more serious. It could be argued that the designer’s analysis of the user’s needs was incomplete. After all, no retail consumer really wants poisonous air or plastic bags littering mountain streams. We might say user needs must be more explicitly and thoughtfully derived, and that we can attempt to satisfy these bigger, more critical needs if we can get deeper into the minds of users. But is that true? There’s a simple solution users can effect on their own: bringing their own reusable bag. People aren’t stupid; they know this is a great way to make a little dent in a large problems. But nobody brings their own bag to Wal-Mart. Smart design decisions can have tremendous influence and can effect change far faster than the gradual behavior change of individuals.
A popular example of good user-centered design is the OXO Good Grips line of cooking utensils. It is successful on many levels: The utensils are easier for children and people with arthritis to manipulate, and they have succeeded wildly in the marketplace. This is, without a doubt, an example of great design success. OXO wanted to make the most money possible, of course, and the design firm (Smart Design) provided a solution that is appealing to many. But this universal design process results in products for the lowest common denominator of user, and now everybody, not only the elderly, ends up with a can opener encased in a big plastic shell. Santoprene, the soft material used in the product, is easily recyclable, but OXO (according to customer service) does not use recycled material in their products. When the number of items sold runs into the millions, this begins to seem like a significant waste.
References:
Archives