The human variable in design
A lesson on what we have in common and how we can use that knowledge in design.
If you are reading this, you are probably a human, and if you have ever felt sleepy in your life, there is something in you that is similar to many other people.
Foundations
We all have differences, but we also share common and often identical traits. After all, as far as we can tell, we are all the same species.
I have learned that there are some foundations that guide every element of the artifacts I work on. I learned some of them in school, some from experience, and others from great professionals.
The main point I have tried to develop is simplicity and efficiency. Since human beings have limited cognitive resources, I have tried to build interfaces that explain the obvious, that feel familiar and minimalist. For this reason, understanding mental and physiological patterns can help us develop new ideas.
Everything starts with a problem
A problem is identified, and once it is recognized as relevant to solve, we designers have work ahead. I will not cover specific processes, older or recent, like Lean UX or Product Discovery. Instead, I want to bring the concept of the scientific method, the same one taught in universities for decades.
The method consists of investigating the problem and the people involved, looking for clues, forming hypotheses, investigating further, raising assumptions, identifying which assumptions we need to dig into, and developing a proposed solution. That solution has to be tested with people. Then we collect data, analyze it, and improve. And obviously, we are trying to solve human problems, and this variable is truly fascinating.
The fascinating variable
In my experience, designing for one person can be surprising and challenging. Try finding out what someone you are very close to wants for dinner, then cook it for them. You will see, through that process of discovery, building, and delivering, that it is not trivial, and that even if you do everything right, they may not like it.
We must always keep in mind that we are working for human beings and all their complexity. When we bring that into design, which has to solve problems for thousands of people, the challenge grows accordingly. So no matter how much research and experimentation we do, there are a few premises that can help us.
The first is that we humans are always wanting something and trying to complete some task, but we do not want the task. We want its outcome.
In these situations, we release stress hormones like cortisol, or pleasure hormones like endorphin, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. When we finish the task and receive the reward, these hormones start to decrease in the body, and we feel relieved, or we carry on with life as if nothing had happened.
This may sound strange, but it is like those movies where people smoke after sex. That said, it is clear that we cannot design experiences. As the researcher Walter Cybis said in his book Ergonomia e Usabilidade, Conhecimentos, Métodos e Aplicações (2010), user experience is individual: if you give the same cake to two people, they can have completely different sensations.
But if we cannot design experiences, we can at least design contexts, and satisfy different degrees and percentages of a given audience. And that is the challenge.
If we understand what is common to the audience we are trying to help, we can reach a fairly high level of accuracy. Another thing we share is that whenever we are forced to spend energy, we get frustrated, because our body does not want that, like when we want to see the sink clean with no dirty dishes. We should work to make every task simpler, more economical, and even enjoyable. Seen from a positive angle, people can use the time saved on tasks that make them feel better. Think about how your life would be without the washing machine.
I personally think that the artifact is just a means for the human being to complete a task more efficiently, and if we make these artifacts easier to learn and use, and help reduce work time, through a simple medium that creates the feeling of "hmm, I know it is there, but I did not even notice."
The human variable is what justifies the existence of design. The more we understand how we ourselves work, the more likely we are to build solutions that truly make sense and produce the expected impact.
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