Video Review: David Kelley: Human Centred Design.
David kelley, one of the founders of the IDEO design consultancy known for its innovative electronics, tells us that his business is moving towards a more human-centred design philosophy. What exactly he means by ‘human-centred’ is not made terribly clear in the video, but it’s not too hard to make an inference. By ‘human-centred design’ Kelley seems to mean making products that are not just functional and aesthetically pleasing, but that also exist as part of the higher levels of the human experience. In other words, designing products that don’t just fulfil a utilitarian and aesthetic need, but that engage users in the realm of emotions, culture, personality and the like.
Kelley admits that this is something that designers have been doing for a long time, and now his team is catching up. Some of the more notable of these design projects include the interactive wall at the London Science Museum which displays countless little thoughts and messages that anyone can upload and read, and the client data infrastructure at the Prada clothing store. The interactive wall, to my thinking, creates a public space where the given society’s current feelings and thoughts can be expressed with anonymity and without context; a mini zeitgeist observable in real-time. The designers mightn’t have intended it for such but I think an object like this would be a great sociology research tool.
The client data infrastructure tool at the Prada store also sounds awesome. People that live in smaller towns know the advantages that come with being friends with the staff at the places you shop at. However, in the big cities this is supposedly lacking. The Prada shop aims to alleviate some of this anonymity by keeping a record of the client’s shopping history. I imagine that this would allow for some semblance of a closer customer relationship. For example, staff might send out emails to shoppers when there is a sale on certain brands they know the shopper likes.
Some other designs shown in the video have a dubious, if any, relevancy to human-centred design, like the Spyfish, which I think Kelley just wanted to plug! It is just a remote-controlled diving video camera for underwater observation. On the website it says it goes for something like US$15,000. To me it seems to be just a really expensive toy that isn’t any more human-centred than most stuff.
Still the video puts out a good point. Sure, designers should be aware of the powers that we can have if we appeal to those higher levels of the human condition. Doing such will allow us to sell more products and appeal to bigger markets. But I think this is a bit of a no-brainer for most market-conscious designers. I guess, like Kelley says, IDEO is just starting to explore this. Regardless, it is something I am looking forward to understanding.
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