HUMAN CENTEREDDESIGNCONTEXT, THEORY, & PRACTICE

@joelfariss

DEFINITIONOF DESIGN

Intentional decision making.

CONTEXT

EXPONENTIALCHANGE

But change in what?

TECHNOLOGY What futurist Ray Kurzweil calls human

history’s Law of Accelerating Returns. More advanced societies have the ability to progress at a faster rate than less advanced societies—

because they’re more advanced.

WHAT DOES TECHNOLOGICAL

CHANGE DO?

CHANGES HUMAN LIFE

Complexity Gap

COMPLEXITY “The chasm that now exists between new people and old institutions is destroying economic value

and inhibiting the emergence of new models [economic, social, business] that meet the needs

of this new society.” - Shoshana Zuboff

WHAT ISTHE KEY?

HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

The logic of consumers is what drives the underlying notions of value in our society.

THEORY

“I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent it.”

– Thomas Edison

HUMANCENTERED

DESIGN

Both an epistemology and a methodology.

KNOWING“...what the world (humans) needs.”

(the epistemology)

“We tend to think knowledge is information, facts, bits of data, ‘content,’ true statements–true

statements justified by other true statements... We conclude that gaining knowledge is collecting

information.”

“It has a lot of appeal, because it is quantifiable, measurable, assessable, and commodifiable. It

offers power and control. But the knowledge-as-in-formation vision is actually defective and damag-ing. It distorts reality and humanness. It gets in

the way of good knowing.”

“We distinguish knowledge from belief,

facts from values, reason from faith,

application from theory, thought from emotion,

mind from body, objective from subjective,

science from art.”

“Epistemological dualism cuts us as knowers down into disconnected compartments unable to

work together–information here, body there, emotions in a third place. It depersonalizes us at the moment of one of our greatest opportunities for personhood–coming to know. It dispels any

sense of adventure.” - Esther Meek

HUMANCENTERED

DESIGN

From belief to knowledge.

From values to facts.From faith to reason.

From theory to application. From emotion to thought.

From body to mind.From subjective to objective.

From art to science.

Complexity Gap

DOING“...proceed to invent it.”

(the methodology)

FIXED MINDSET VS. GROWTH

MINDSET

An Adobe Systems poll of five thousand people on three continents reports that 80 percent of

people see unlocking creative potential as a key to economic growth. Yet only 25 percent of these

individuals feel that they’re living up to their creative potential in their own lives and careers.

Fixed mindset:We believe that being creative is a fixed trait, like

being born with brown eyes.

Growth mindset:We believe that a person’s true potential is

unknown and creativity can be learned.

YOU HAVEPERMISSION

TO FAIL.

Research has shown that creative people do more experiments. Their ultimate “strokes of genius” don’t come about because they succeed more

often than other people–they just do more, period.

“Real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.”

- Thomas Edison

FIND INSIGHT & INSPIRATION

Think like a traveller.

Engage relaxed attention.

Empathize.

Get out of the office.

Ask “why?”

DOSOMETHING

Have a bias towards action.

PRACTICE

EMPATHIZE

EMPATHIZE DEFINE

EMPATHIZE DEFINE IDEATE

EMPATHIZE DEFINE IDEATE PROTOTYPE

EMPATHIZE DEFINE IDEATE PROTOTYPE TEST

HUMAN CENTEREDDESIGNCONTEXT, THEORY, & PRACTICE

@joelfariss