Experience Design — a humane perspective.
“I will spend my weekend with Netflix, a lot to watch…”
“I need to find my all phone contacts which I missed,”
“My home is a smart home, enabled with voice and no need to reach out to any of the switches,”
Interaction is an action which is influenced by other actions. An example is a Conversation. Interaction has been the key factor in human evolution. We need to interact, to share our knowledge.
Conversation:
The process which runs in our brain to reply and respond to action is Conversation.
Communication:
Communication is about thinking or training our brain before we start the conversation or respond for a conversation so the other person can understand.
Similar to the growth of regular communication techniques, unique types of communication tools such as Like, Signs, Sounds, Smoke Signals, Smileys, etc. were also invented.
As a human being from Neanderthal, Homo sapiens we all developed and survived because of our ability to communicate. Communication is one of the primary tools for interaction.
Inventions of tools
Learning from the past is a key learning. In the past, our innovations towards interaction were helpful for survival. By sharing what we learnt in the past among ourselves, we could build our community and make it culturally rich.
During the course, the different industry and products/tools developed. This started from carving, making fire, cooking, language, innovations in agriculture, saving water by building lakes and dams for irrigation and agriculture, and so on. In parallel, we also Invented weapons to fight wars against others, to spread the culture and expand our lands. We learned ethics and cultural beliefs throughout our evolution.
Later tools evolved into machines/technology, Information technology and Human-Centric Design approach. We had innovations on the communication products like the Telegraph, Telephone, Typewriter, and explained that every tool has its way of interaction (usage). We started our focus on automation by reducing human effort (HCI).
Evolution of HCI
All man-made machines helped humans in increasing productivity, reduce labour effort, etc. When Information technology started, Computer solved all the mathematical formulas in a fraction of seconds. Moving forward, instead of just being Machine Centric, the focus moved to a Human Centric approach.
Instead of solving a specific problem, try to understand the user's problem. IDEO — the global design firm behind Apple’s first computer mouse, the Palm Pilot in 1998, and more — arrived with three phases for the design process, which has helped them to innovate long-lasting products. Human-Centred Design process is an inspiration, ideation, and implementation.
Into the digital and Internet era
In the history of HCI, Alan Kay, the father of the personal computer, introduced Graphical User Interface and changed the perspective of Personal Computing.
All of us know that the hyperlink/hypertext made the internet popular. It expanded like wildfire. Once Kay was researching on designing an interactive computer for collaboration and applied the same principle for the personal computer he designed. Had multiple windows, graphic elements and also a mouse for interaction — GUI invented.
“Computer science inverts the normal. In normal science, you’re given a world, and your job is to find out the rules. In computer science, you give the computer the rules, and it creates the world.” — Alan Kay
After the invention of the personal computer and GUI, there was a steep rise in the usage of internet and technologies. The mechanical engineering-based hardware and machines tied up with digital interactions. Instead of interactions to improve human health and intelligence, it moved in different directions.
The Internet has become unavoidable now. In this scenario, on average the time “digital native” spend on the Internet is almost 45%.
And 95% of teens have access to a smartphone in the US. And the internet becomes inevitable. All innovative digital products are supposed to help in solving human problems (?). It has become part of life now. Our lives have become more and more dependent on digital products and the Internet. So it is very important to consider how we design the products.
We now have so many digital products with unique interaction patterns.
Every product company is aiming to achieve a certain goal in making us greedy and getting addicted to it. Similar to the Hunting greedy monkey experiment. We don’t let go of things easily. It becomes the driving factor to increases the profit of every business.
“Good” Interaction Design should be,
Ethical: It does no harm and hopefully improves the situation
Purposeful: It helps people accomplish goals. It is appropriate for the user’s context.
Pragmatic: It achieves business goals and fits within constraints
Elegant: It provides the simplest complete solution. It engages the emotions appropriately.
Let’s look into the Ethical aspect of a few products and services.
Netflix: The user experience and the Interaction design is very good, and it minimizes the effort involved to skip the credits part, skip the recap, etc (disable feature is available through settings but not upfront). It is an excellent design and no doubt in it. But is it Humane?
YouTube: YouTube has a lot of videos. If you watch a video, The application is so easy; it minimises a lot of cognitive loads and helps you find relevant videos and navigate easily through other interesting videos. It automatically starts playing next videos (disable feature is available through settings but not upfront) and keeps you occupied for long hours. Is it Humane?
Facebook: Every time you open the app, fresh content shows up. It has made the interface in such a way you need not navigate; the content flows continuously and keeps you occupied. It makes you addicted to the entire experience.
Given the addictive idea of this quick, self-defining criticism, online networking organizations may even guarantee upon this to maximally connect with users. Continuous research shows that depending on online criticism for self-esteem can affect youngsters, especially those with low social-emotional well-being, because of high paces of cyberbullying, expanded tension and depression, and expanded view of social confinement and avoidance among the individuals who feel dismissed online. Is it Humane?
Two years back a video went viral of Facebook employees trying out a soap dispenser. White and a Black man tried. Soap dispenser worked only for a white person and also worked even for a tissue paper but not for the coloured-skinned man. How we are not considering inclusiveness?
E-commerce: When you plan to purchase system will suggest some relevant accessories “seducing moment”, making the user spend more. A thin line is there between ethics, moral and user experience.
Most of the doctors and nurses will say I liked this profession because I can help people. If a designer says similarly that I want to be a designer to help people? How cool it would be? Designing with inclusiveness in mind may sound cliche, but it is a thing we need to teach the next generation.
Before the mobile phones; I used to remember at least 20 of my friends and relatives phone number (Landline with rotary dials) and never used a diary until everything was in my mind. Now even for my wife or parents’ number I just search by name in the mobile phone and hurray there it is. Phone numbers become unnecessary ones to remember. If I missed the contacts, don’t worry, it is available in the cloud. — It is one of a debatable topic (regarding our cognitive brain learning), but yes we made it easy for our daily use.
My father (Babyboomers generation) used to drive through different narrow streets and quick routes to reach places and never used Google maps. Even now sitting behind the car he guides us while driving through places not by just saying go left or go right, He says “go towards north, take a right at the south end”. We would wonder what he is saying and what is north where is south? (I have to look for where the Sun is shining to understand the directions LOL) He doesn’t need a Google map. Even if we go to an unknown place, he gets the direction by conversing with the local people. Yes, Google map is an excellent option when we are alone and in an unknown place. But are we not a social animal? Why we hesitate to speak to unknown strangers even we have an option to? Why our belief system went down? Why don’t we trust a mutual human being? We don’t trust our teachers, doctors but Google. It becomes very important now to make sure our digital products are integrated with our morality.
“There is the desire of a consumer society to have no learning curves. This tends to result in very dumbed-down products that are easy to get started on but are generally worthless and/or debilitating.” — Alan Kay
The technology is most often compared with a knife and they can use it for good and bad. But will you give the knife to a kid? NO, right? Exactly. By giving these tools (mobiles and other digital products), we often miss the actual problem.
We design Apps and Softwares for different personas to meet their daily needs. Kids use technology for gaming and watch streaming videos continuously. Soon they get addicted and their cognitive part of the brain degrades. Have we stopped using and train our brain to learn and remember? Is our cognitive side of the brain is losing its natural learning ability? Research also suggests how the brain is learning efficiently and effectively to use “Google search”, and the context for learning is changing.
Now as we are moving into a very complex digital era, more complex than the current one, even researchers cannot predict how our brain will evolve and learn.
When we are focusing on VR, AR, MR etc., as designers, we should consider the ethical part of the experience designs. By rubbing the stone, we invented fire. But even after the start of the fire, if we continued to rub the stone, wouldn’t we burn our hands? Anything excessive is harmful to our wellness. As an Experience Designer, we need to inform the user that “the fire has started and don’t keep rubbing.”
Some research says overall, the evidence strongly shows that engaging in multitasking via digital media does not improve our multitasking performance in other settings — and seems to diminish this cognitive capacity through weakening our ability to ignore incoming distractions.
Digital and the internet is an amazing invention. As a Designer, it is the Designers’ responsibility. Think strategically and improve the business in an Ethical approach.
Ethical Design: Design morals concern moral conduct and mindful decisions in the act of design structure. It directs how Designers work with clients, associates, and the end-clients of items, how they lead the structure procedure, how they decide the highlights of items, and how they evaluate the moral criticalness or good worth of the items that are the outcome of the action of planning.
“Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.”–Tony Zambito,
- Confirm or warn users to take a timeout over continuous screen time.
- Guide or help the user improve motor skill and cognitive learning.
- Improve physical awareness around the people.
- In the past decades, we have found no actual innovation or innovators of the calibre of scientists like Einstein, C. V. Raman. We just use or enhance existing innovations.
- Your design needs to be inclusive.
- Considering the Privacy, Security and Inclusiveness are not just enough. Need to think of our past. Bring innovation which helps to live in a sustainable world.
We can research our ancestors through fossils and other physical objects from digging and with other techniques. If any disaster happens again, it will erase the entire history of our century. And there would be no proof of what human did as the digital format doesn’t sustain, including this write-up. We also should not forget our ancestor’s way of living life.
Everyone thinks about solving the current/present problem and often neglect its long-term effect.
“Life is divided into three terms — that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.” — William Wordsworth
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