Hippo - The Human-Focused Digital Book by Pete Trainor

Author:Pete Trainor [Trainor, Pete]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780995536128
Publisher: Nexus CX Ltd
Published: 2018-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

Remember, that when we solve, we evolve.

CHAPTER 8

People Learn, Thought Aristotle…

and Question, Thought Socrates

‘All things change; nothing perishes.’ Ovid

Designing digital products to focus more on solving human problems is not an approach that is too scientific or too esoteric but the most radical. We can define the basic human condition in terms of the events that formulate the necessities of our existence. Birth, for example, the need to move, grow as an animal, express emotions, aspire, understand and live in conflict, and the hardest of all: being mortal. The human condition has always been a broad study, which continues to be analysed in all areas of work by scientists, philosophers, religious scholars and expressed in art, literature, and even dance. There seems in fact no area of thought, research or expression that doesn’t link in some way to the exploration of or the investigation into the human condition. Anthropology, numerology – even scientology, yes, everyone it seems is giving it a real go.

Throughout history, philosophy has been the domain of the thinkers who are most interested in the human state. From René Descartes’ declaration of ‘I think, therefore I am’, positing that humans determine truth by means of reason, right back to Socrates, who is said by Aristotle to have been the initiator of exploration into the human condition. This shared emphasis on the importance of reason remains an influence on those thinking about design today, where usability is a prime consideration and therefore human-focused design is concerned with designing for usability from the outset. By definition, a product that requires deconstruction and modification to become more usable was not meeting this remit from the start. While the majority sees lightweight, frictionless design as the goal, for some there is merit in designing friction into the products.

Design doesn’t seek to answer all the great questions of existence. You see, technology is created by humans, whose creativity and ingenuity can’t yet be matched, let alone surpassed, so that it still requires human intervention to achieve novel solutions to design problems. Our varied experience, talents and inspirations can’t be replicated and indeed we are as yet unable to explain how they come about, though many have tried. Through philosophy, the arts and religion we’ve explored what it is to be human, to live a good life and what factors, such as nature versus nurture, might modify our behaviours to good or evil ends. Through modern psychological techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy, we’ve explored the possibilities of changing the human condition (usually to alleviate the effects of conditions like depression) and the possibility of such modification has long preoccupied philosophers, key amongst whom was Aristotle.

Aristotle believed that as humans we have an innate desire to grow, to evolve and to progress. But this is different to the instant gratification and the frictionless results we grab too often as experiences through speedy digital design. With Aristotle’s theory of the ‘four causes’ that every living thing exhibits or ‘causes’, we can match those beside a real digital application.

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