User Experience: a process that has shrunk today to be limitedly associated with the design of Apps and Website. It even shrunk to two letters, UX. Some agencies will define it as a process to create “Idiot Proof” interfaces… Seriously?
The words have lost so much of their essence that we barely apply the process while designing consumer products or living and work spaces, leading to an invasion of wrong buildings, interior designs, products, objects which therefore, will not enhance people life and remain unused or unsold...
User experience is nothing new and we can find applications in ancient civilisations like the Aztecs, Egyptians or Greeks, it is as old as the stone age and the making of first tools…
Let’s travel back in time, 4000 years BC in China and talk about Feng Shui: taking away its holistic/energy flow(chi) philosophy we can define Feng Shui by the Art of arranging your surroundings and objects in the most optimal, harmonious and user-friendly way. It concerns everything from space, geometry, layout, materials and colours with one goal in mind: create an intuitive experience and a sense of wellbeing and happiness. Does it sound familiar?
I lead designers who were struggling to create great products because they forgot that, by the end of the day, someone will use the products they are designing. I engaged them to apply Feng Shui basic principles while designing, to put their feet in the shoes of the end user (always a source of inspiration), to imagine and design what will make this end user feel comfortable, safer, simply happier and eager to purchase the thing. Once this initial goal is achieved the designer can venture in solving the technical problems and finalise the project. (Technology needs to serve a purpose, not the other way around). We design for People, not to look good or famous… User Experience is, as designers, our reason to be, our driving force and our road to excellence.
Designing for People is a state of mind you will not learn at school, it is a personal journey that requires empathy, emotional intelligence and intuition, key ingredients to what we call talent. Talent will grow with experience. Eventually, applying the same state of mind to your personal life and relationships will lead to a happier and successful life.
Henry Dreyffus said in 1955, “when the point of contact between the product and the people becomes a point of friction, then the designer has failed”. We could quote the same sentence to personal relationship and fail as a person.
Design your life as you design products, to make people around you safer, comfortable and happier. Put love and passion in what you do, not towards the product you design but towards the people you are designing for… Increase your creative consciousness and always remember, “The hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire”.
contact us: pv@rockndesign.com