Difficulty design
Until recently, household items were formed according to their technology. The design of the phone was essentially a case around the mechanism. The task of the designers was to make technology beautiful.
The engineers had to define the interfaces of these objects. Their main concern was the function of the machine, not its ease of use. We - the "users" - had to understand how these devices work.
With each technological innovation, our everyday objects have become richer and more complex. Designers and engineers simply burdened users with this increase in complexity. I still have nightmares about trying to get a train ticket in .
From complex to simple
Luckily, UX (User eXperience) designers have found ways to create beautiful interfaces that are easy to use.
Their process may resemble a philosophical inquiry where they continually ask questions such as: What is the purpose of this device? How do we perceive it? What is our mental model?
Today, thanks to their efforts, we interact with superbly designed interfaces. Designers pacify difficulties for us. They make extremely complex technologies simple and easy to use.
From simple to too simple
Everything easy sells well. So more and more products are based on the promise of making our lives easier by using more and more sophisticated technology with even simpler interfaces.
Just tell your phone what you want and everything will be magically done - whether it's information on the screen or a package delivered to your doorstep. A huge amount of technology, as well as infrastructure, has been tamed by the brave designers and engineers who do all this work.
But we do not see - let alone understand - what is happening behind the scenes, what is hidden behind a simple appearance. We are kept in the dark.
You should see me whine like a spoiled child when a video call doesn't work as smoothly as expected - all those interruptions and poor audio quality! An experience that would have seemed to people only 50 years ago a miracle requiring a colossal infrastructure has become the expected norm for me.
We don't appreciate what we have because we don't understand what's going on.
Does technology make us stupid? This is an eternal question. Plato is known to have warned us about the harmful effects of writing, which we know about because he wrote them down.
The problem with "user-centric" design
In his excellent book Living with Complexity, Donald Norman offers many strategies for allowing designers to use complex design to improve user experience.
And here lies the problem.
I'm increasingly wary of the term "user-centric design". The word "user" has a second meaning - "drug user", which implies addiction, short-sighted satisfaction and a reliable source of income for the "dealer". The word "oriented" excludes almost everyone else and everything else.
Holistic approach to complexity
Alternatively, we should broaden our perspective and ask questions such as:
Empowerment: Who gets all the fun?
Maybe being able to speak a foreign language is more fun than using translation software.
Whenever we are about to replace labor-intensive activities such as learning a language, cooking, or caring for plants with a deceptively simple solution, we can always ask ourselves the question: should the technology or the person using it grow and develop?
Resilience: Does it make us more vulnerable?
High-tech systems work flawlessly as long as everything goes right.
When a problem arises that the developers did not expect, these systems can fail. The more complex the systems, the more likely something will go wrong. They are less stable.
Chronic dependence on a combination of electronics, artificial intelligence, and high-speed internet connectivity for the simplest of tasks is a recipe for disaster. This complicates our lives, especially when we do not understand what lies behind the deceptively simple interface.
Empathy: what effect does this simplification have on other people?
Our decisions have consequences for us and others. A simplistic view may blind us to these implications.
Our decision about which smartphone to buy or what to eat for dinner has a huge impact on other living beings. Knowing the complexity of such a decision can make a huge difference. We need to know things better if we want to be better.
Acceptance of complexity
Simplification is a powerful design strategy. Naturally, the emergency call button should be as simple as possible. However, we also need further development strategies to help us accept, understand and deal with difficult situations in our lives.
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Source: habr.com