decentering design or a critique of human centered design

Decentering Design OR A Critique of HCD Thomas Wendt Surrounding Signifiers @thomas_wendt [email protected] srsg.co

mailto:[email protected]

Design Facilitator Strategist and Researcher Design Critic Author

Based in NYC

Research Interests: HCD, sustainability, design philosophy, co-operative and participatory design, design ethics and the politics of design

Thomas Wendt

Thomas Wendt Surrounding Signifiers @thomas_wendt

HCD fails to recognize its own paradoxes

HCD feigns political neutrality

Empathy is faux ethics

HCD within capitalism is fundamentally unsustainable

Premises


In a way, this talk used HCD as a platform to talk about sustainability.

I maintain an ambivalent relationship to this topic, as I make part of my living by teaching HCD. But I think we need to think more critically about the things we do everyday.

More of a critique of centricity; HCD is just a convenient target.

“Practicing criticism is a matter of making facile

gestures difficult.” Michel Foucault

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwi4-LGJ7e7OAhVJ1R4KHcOVDPAQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fredaccion.lamula.pe%2F2016%2F05%2F04%2Fcinco-peliculas-para-acercarnos-al-pensamiento-de-michel-foucault%2Fmanuelangeloprado%2F&bvm=bv.

131669213,d.dmo&psig=AFQjCNE3qL9R4PaBFzANOa50w_DK0aGHgw&ust=1472842773590572

So the point of this talk is not to dismiss HCD but rather to call its flaws into question while still remaining open to accept its benefits.

“One of the (many) ways this culture is killing the planet is

through a lack of imagination.”

Derrick Jensen

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjvp7G78-7OAhWBJh4KHYZODYIQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.coach.me%2Fderrick-jensen-interview%2F&bvm=bv.131669213,d.dmo&psig=AFQjCNETAFmz2oEOEYwMpWT_FKROYozIIQ&ust=1472844476561644

Call to action for designers.

Radically reimagine systems of power and ways of being

HCD fails to recognize its own paradoxes


Abductive reasoning Studies of the artificial Wicked problems Complexity Collaborative design

Origins of HCD


Movement away from the original interest in complexity among the early design theorists

Giancarlo de Carlo. “Architecture is too important to be left to architects

But somehow we dumbed it down to…

Problem + HCD = Solution


Our scientific rationalism creeps in and we start looking at HCD as a means of pure problem solving.

Russell Ackoff on solving, resolving, dissolving, and absolving.

One cannot propose a solution without understanding a problem

AND

One cannot understand a problem without proposing solutions

Problem-Solution Paradox



https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjjqLuY2sTSAhVFZCYKHXleApcQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fextreme.stanford.edu%2Fprojects%2Fembrace&bvm=bv.148747831,d.amc&psig=AFQjCNFNEI5U0aVRu2BApUC3w6-AP8X3sw&ust=1488986779187933

Low cost incubator = lower infant mortalityHospital in Nepal with empty incubators because babies are born at homeEmbrace costs 1% of a hospital incubator and can be used anywhere.

Great product, but it only begins to uncover the real structural issues of the problem space. Why is health care lacking in these regions? Why is getting to a hospital so difficult? Why are local healers not already dealing with this?

“Nearly all of our present ecological problems

originate in deep-seated social problems.””

Murray Bookchin

Social ecology. (ecology as the interaction between environmental elements)

HCD tends to see design problems as things needing fixing, rather than complex and systemic issues.

Mention Kees Dorst’s Frame Innovation model

Innovation is what makes humans special

AND

Innovation is not inherently good

Innovation Paradox


Bookchin on how humans can innovate rather than simply adapt

“The chief premise common to both technology and science is the notion that there

are no desirable limits to the increase of knowledge, of material goods, of

environmental control; that quantitative productivity is an end in itself, and that every means should be used to further expansion.”

Lewis Mumford

Hyper-rationalism leads to uncritical acceptance of innovation.

Mumford: classic techno-pessimist concerned with power structures in technical systems

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi1uYOi38TSAhUB3yYKHf4vBWUQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2-5RP-okG8w&bvm=bv.148747831,d.amc&psig=AFQjCNED81HFTmYI6DwqIbEi-240KW58pQ&ust=1488987846844890

Apple’s “Real Problems Answered” campaign

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjbj5yN38TSAhWINSYKHYP8AdQQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scoopnest.com%2Fuser%2F9to5mac%2F661266477497122816&bvm=bv.

148747831,d.amc&psig=AFQjCNED81HFTmYI6DwqIbEi-240KW58pQ&ust=1488987846844890

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi1uYOi38TSAhUB3yYKHf4vBWUQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2-5RP-okG8w&bvm=bv.148747831,d.amc&psig=AFQjCNED81HFTmYI6DwqIbEi-240KW58pQ&ust=1488987846844890

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiAwL6O4MTSAhXHJCYKHSicDh8QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2Fcircuitbreaker%2F2016%2F10%2F27%2F13440830%2Fmacbook-pro-iphone-lightning-usb-c-adapter-dongle&bvm=bv.

148747831,d.amc&psig=AFQjCNG6WIcveLGsVqJrmNEBuFamidQV3Q&ust=1488988375977201

Or is this the real problem?

Credit Dan Klyn

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjl37fu46bRAhVFOiYKHRMzDRYQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Frebrn.com%2Fre%2Fsuicide-nets-in-chinese-factories-that-make-various-technologica-540946%2F&bvm=bv.

142059868,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNEVbTtmzQ93rJIOuQ0Z_xht4v6iVw&ust=1483560529919466

Or this?

Foxconn manufacturing (not just Apple but also HP, Nintendo, Sony, and others)

Even the net (as an innovaiton) ignores the real problem

Market needs

≠

Human needsThomas Wendt Surrounding Signifiers @thomas_wendt

The biggest HCD paradox of all.

These are usually not compatible and are often at odds.

HCD feigns political neutrality


https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjwkL6jjanRAhXGOSYKHRagDFwQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcyberspaceandtime.com%2FYGfwr5AL7T4.video&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNHKJOBhHAPwD3fWOPybuVoPvXiHZA&ust=1483640340689596

“Designers materialize morality.”

Peter Paul Verbeek

Wrote about this at length in Design for Dasein

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwi5kvmR7KjRAhWJbSYKHUdMD_cQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FLateStageCapitalism%2Fcomments%2F4gidxe%2Fstone_balls_to_knock_passengers_off_indonesian%2F&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNHIjTbGu46j-

RqLHzChMC_7L0h4dA&ust=1483631455078080

These types of design get a lot of attention.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjEqsD27KjRAhUI7yYKHaqUBZwQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLinkNYC&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNEGnqLP0hJPFX0mtSd7stqh6Uyyow&ust=1483631689849652

But these types of designs are equally political.

Free wifi = sign in to collect data, auto log in, targeted ads

Designers made a political and ethical choice about what is important in an urban landscape

"One thing I know about my fellow New Yorkers, they like

things that are completely free of charge.”

Mayor Bill De Blasio

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjx77vS7O7OAhVJlR4KHUqoAxoQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBill_de_Blasio&bvm=bv.131669213,d.dmo&psig=AFQjCNG5zE1H909KO14tQTY7MP4UVK_apA&ust=1472842656619228

Irony is that they’re not free at all.

Costing us a sense of dwelling. I’m scared by this neoliberal acceptance of invasive advertising.


Human


Human

Centricity forecloses on everything outside the center

Human becomes sovereign in a system of which we are only a small part.

Another paradox: J Paul Neely’s conclusion that design systems have no boundaries

Empathy is Faux Ethics


To understand an other’s feelings

In pathos

Empathy is necessary…



Empathy is necessary… but not sufficient


Human

Empathy is not equipped to deal with ecological concerns

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjQw9OJhZHSAhVIfiYKHda3AhgQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fdavyhoornaert%2Fux-empathy-map%2F&psig=AFQjCNFpZIwyPu0472Tc6od0IQ88dQD-cw&ust=1487955006435417

Empathy is simply an attempt to reconcile the dissonance of political neutrality.

Designers convince themselves that empathy will fix everything, and spend their time on silly frameworks rather than thinking critically and ecologically.

Empathy

≠

Good designThomas Wendt Surrounding Signifiers @thomas_wendt


Empathy

=

You’re not a psychopath

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjK9uvv2KbSAhWFOCYKHaQsCZUQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simonandschuster.com.au%2Fbooks%2FPsychopath-Factory%2FTristam-Vivian-Adams%2F9781910924402&psig=AFQjCNH6qy3yocFpUm6XI-JML-

MrEj95yw&ust=1487955629112403

“The psyche and its empathetic capacities are put to work just as much

as are bodies and cognitive capabilities.”

Tristam Adams

Capitalism regulates empathy as much as bodies and minds.

“Empathy is a flow, it is current-and wave-based—it is analogue. The subject cannot make a conscious decision for whom they

empathise with or where and when empathy becomes involved. Nonetheless, capitalism

seeks to digitise empathy; it seeks to segment empathy into on and off, zeros and ones, so that empathy, or a form of empathy,

can be utilised.” Tristam Adams


Empathy becomes another force for capitalism to regulate.

Similar in design: empathy has become a function of ethics and productivity.

Designers are taught to empathize, but how are we expected to turn it on and off?


https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwiMyLLX4abSAhXkxYMKHX0tCT0QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fairbnb-takes-down-san-francisco-ads-2015-10&psig=AFQjCNEaKxB6q_eYBNBs1d_LmhEu371raw&ust=1487957923000165

Empathy is great for the individual but can be devastating for ecologies, especially when it leads to further privatization of common resources.

Image stolen from David Holl

Commercial empathy is misguided at best and a

vehicle for oppression at worst


HCD within capitalism is fundamentally unsustainable


Buying stuff is not a human need.Capitalism trains us to think that it is.

Humans or Consumers?


Who does HCD address? Humans or Consumers?


https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjniZykyqrOAhUNySYKHULVBokQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2016%2F06%2F28%2Famazon-expands-its-dash-button-program-to-50-more-brands-says-orders-taking-place-twice-a-minute%2F&bvm=bv.128617741,bs.

1,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNHk53IK-_iuoOOZQ_6CIJrJffKjkw&ust=1470496941706454

This is what we end up with from companies we tend to associate with HCD. Things designed under the auspices of “human”needs”

These types of “modern conveniences” do not serve real needs; they instead serve to ensnare consumers in patterns of “convenient consumption.”

We are so alienated from our food sources in modern industrial capitalism that we rely on packaged garbage to feed us. So we might cook up some Kraft Mac and Cheese for dinner.

The combination of sodium, carbohydrates, and artificial everything makes us dehydrated, so we turn to Gatorade to quench our thirst.

All this sweetened, artificial food packed with preservatives upsets our digestive systems, so we always need an abundance of Cottonelle toilet paper.

We use Clorox wipes to clean the kitchen, because anything less than clinical sterilization is unacceptable.

And since the wipes are conveniently disposable, we throw them away in a Glad trash bag to be shipped off to the landfill.

We put on some Loreal Youth Code after dinner to ward off any signs of natural aging.

Now it’s time to tend to the children, feeding them their own form of packaged garbage in the form of Gerber baby food.

And changing their Huggies diaper

And throwing the old one out in the Glad bag (it always ends in trash)

Humans or Consumers?


Who uses this stuff?

“The origin and refractoriness of unsustainability can be attributed to many

causes, but two stand out as critical: the Cartesian, scientific mindset of modern

cultures and the hegemony of technological and technocratic solutions to all individual

and collective problems.” John Ehrenfeld


Unsustainability lasts because of centricity: both of scientific hegemony and technocratic power.

Capitalism created both of these effects.

“Centricity” is anti-ecological


Ecology

=

study of the home, dwellingThomas Wendt Surrounding Signifiers @thomas_wendt

Home is different than house; it includes physical, social, and ethical dimensions of dwelling.

Capitalist HCD at scale is not equipped to deal with ecological concerns. It tends to treat the “home” as a source of material to convert into capital.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjniZykyqrOAhUNySYKHULVBokQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2016%2F06%2F28%2Famazon-expands-its-dash-button-program-to-50-more-brands-says-orders-taking-place-twice-a-minute%2F&bvm=bv.128617741,bs.

1,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNHk53IK-_iuoOOZQ_6CIJrJffKjkw&ust=1470496941706454

This is not a home-like landscape

Rethink human needs through the lens of radical,

prefigurative politics


Stories of quitting jobs if you’re doing more harm than good. Being good enough as a designer to effect change in restrictive systems.

Get radical (focus on root causes)Prefigurative politicsPractice solidarity and mutual aid

What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design - Peter Paul Verbeek

The Psychopath Factory: How Capitalism Organizes Empathy - Tristam Adams

Endgame - Derrick Jensen

The Myth of Human Supremacy - Derrick Jensen

Toward an Ecological Society - Murray Bookchin

Remaking Society - Murray Bookchin

Change the World Without Taking Power - John Holloway

Direct Action: An Ethnography - David Graeber

Tools for Conviviality - Ivan Illich

Design for the Real World - Victor Papanek

Further Reading

Read about my next book:

bit.ly/persistentfools

Thanks!