Human centered design or economic system centered design?
Posted on December 21, 2017
Artwork by Ellsworth Kelly, 1953
How in many cases human centered design is helping somehow to maintain or reinforce some values of the economic system we live in that are not creating a better society? Values that are preventing the progress of society and causing many of the problems we currently face.
Since I heard about human centered design, I thought it was a great approach to start conceptualizing, a great way to build a trustable base to start designing (obviously, if we are designing for humans, we need to first understand the people who we are designing for; their needs, feelings, desires, experiences, etc.)
The method and its phases at first sight make a lot of sense; we first need to understand the people we are designing for (research/inspiration), for later being able to propose solutions to problems they are facing, and at the “end” prove if is the best solution (implementation/prototyping). Of course this sounds awesome, however, all the people who have use it knows that the process does not perform that way and it´s not as easy, simple and always fun as it is presented.
Anyway, this method seems (very) attractive for business executives and designers, and many companies are taking workshops to learn more about, training people and adopting it as part of an innovation culture, also many universities, consultancies, agencies are offering this type of workshops, courses and programs around this method.
But if we go a little bit under the surface and ask ourselves for who are we designing for (at the end) in many cases we will be surprised. Humans, have a set of necessities (according to the Maslow Pyramid) which come from the basic ones: physiological, as food, house, rest, safety, etc. psychological needs, as sense of belongingness and accomplishment feeling, at the top of the pyramid comes the self-fulfillment needs, which could be the achievement of one´s full potential, creative activities, etc. And when these necessities are not met because of the demands of the system, we designers, come to propose something that can adapt to their lifestyle and cover those needs.
To mention some examples; intelligent houses, smart objects, smart phones and the huge list of applications that exist nowadays are designed with a human centered approach, which are taking the role of simplifying all the activities we are demanded to do nowadays in order to be efficient, perform more activities we need to, and still be able to cover the necessities we have as humans as cleaning, eating, socialize, etc. These objects and services a lot of times are aligned with the system values of productivity, immediacy, efficiency, consumerism, work as the first priority, profit, etc. and sells the idea of a very attractive lifestyle. Another example I would like to bring up is the ergonomics; the branch of design that in many times ha the task of fixing problems caused by long working hours, which is another feature of the economic system. Is centered in human physiological necessities, which many times are caused by the system.
Another point I would like mention is that many times this method´s approach is designing for a few humans, and sometimes for humans of high income, which is excluding the majority of people. So comes to my mind the following question: is the use of human centered approach to just benefit a small part of the population really human?
So, even if is un-intentional, human centered design can take advantage of human necessities shaped by the system, to create business and reinforce the system itself. And many times our role as designers is to cover some necessities that the economic system is not allowing people to cover because the higher priorities of the same system, in other cases we are designing to sell and maintain the economic growth. We are creators of Band-Aids for the economic and political system’s injuries.
However, I´m not saying that human centered design is bad method as itself, actually I think is great, and a lot of times brings ideas that improves peoples lives and creates a positive change, but I think is very important to be aware of who are we designing for (at the end) and which values we are reinforcing, which in many times could be: efficiency, profit and economic growth above everything, productivity, immediacy, rapid change, wellness, career driven life, etc.
Prioritizing these values could lead to: exclusion, violation of human rights, consumerism, climate change, the increase of the contrast between people´s socio-economic status, maintain wealthy people focused in creating a superficial lives, which follow up building indifference and barriers between people.
Because of this, there is an urgency of creating a culture of critical thinking and critical design and be adopted not just by designers, but by all the professionals and people, as well of a awareness and better understanding of how systems operates.
As Anthony and Fiona mentions in Speculating everything critical thinking is not taking things for granted, being skeptical, and always questioning what is given, so if we are going to be critical, we need to question if the outcomes of using human centered design are truly human. Using this method is not a synonymous of doing good (which we can never be 100% good) , or guarantee that the result will create a positive impact, but what we know is that all good design is critical 1
So are we using human centered design or economic system centered design? What if we better use a society centered design method which could lead to real progress of society, which could mean a cleanest environment, a smaller gap between rich and poor people, more empathetic society, more inclusion and equity, less children mortality, less crime rate, etc, which are the goals that Donella Meadows propose to nations to seek instead of economic growth.2 The main values of society centered design would be: inclusivity, equity, justice, freedom, respect towards the environment, encouragement towards participation of society, critical thinking, among others.
Nowadays designers are having more and more influence and agency to shape the society, having this power also means that we need to be very responsible in our role.
Mariana Gonzalez
Bibliography
- Dunne, Anthony, Raby, Fiona. Speculative Everything, MIT Press (Massachusetts, 2013)
- Meadows, Donella. Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing (Vermont, 2008)