You cannot think like others but you can think with them
when
car airbag systems were first introduced
it was found that it protected tall and
heavy passengers
while women and children were at severe
risk
a recent study from university of
virginia
showed that for a female occupant
the odds of getting injured in frontal
cash
is 73 percent greater than for a male
occupant
the reason behind this is that the
dummies
used in automotive crash tests were
designed
to represent an average man
this crash this bias is an example of
how a faulty conclusion made by the
manufacturer
to understand its users had deadly
consequences
design is a domain that goes far beyond
just what a product looks like
everything around us
is designed from the roads that we drive
in
to the app that delivers us food
to the user testing guide that ensures
safety
as a designer my everyday job
deals with how to make people’s life
easy
and how to build tools for their
empowerment
most often i find myself
designing for people who are completely
unlike me
they have different belief systems
capabilities lifestyle
and routines to design for them
i have to understand their needs and
aspirations
how to achieve that
as humans we see the world around us
through our experiences i have a set of
experiences
through which i perceive the world
around me
similarly the people who i design for
have have their own set of experiences
and feelings
now how do i connect with their
experiences and empathize with them
when i was a design student at the
national institute of design
i had the wonderful opportunity to work
with people who were diagnosed with
parkinson’s
tremors
during one of my research visits
to a parkinson’s club in ahmedabad
i came across a retired professor
who loved to draw and make art
he was diagnosed with parkinsonism five
years back
and now had to completely cease from
what he loved to do the most
drawing similarly
i met a poet who had to leave his
passion
because of the tremors
this hit me and inspired me
to develop a writing and drawing aid for
parkinson’s tremor
so listening to their stories help me to
discover
opportunities that i would not have come
across otherwise
these stories were a powerful medium
through which
i could associate with them
we all make errors in describing our
experiences
and there can be a lot of difference
between what we
say we do and what we actually do
sometimes we only see the symptoms
and think of it as the actual problem
during a task analysis exercise that i
did
to observe people while they were
writing
i noted that different people have
different ways to comfortably grip a pen
to get maximum support this was
interesting
because they were rejecting some ideas
saying that they didn’t like them
without actually being able to describe
the real cause
that here was the grip so our
observations
are fundamental when we infer
and create judgments in our minds
we all have a lot of preconceptions
about things
that we don’t know of and our brain
takes several mental shortcuts to create
these
these are often wrong and can create a
lot of misunderstanding
it is crucial to break them down when we
are designing for others
and sometimes asking questions
is the most primary and natural way
to deal with these assumptions
from initial opportunity mapping
to the final prototyping stage of flow’s
development
i kept asking questions to myself
and to the people i was designing for
these conversations were essential
in clarifying the real needs
and it helped me to paint a clear
picture
of their feelings
the only way we can know if something
works or not
is through testing it in the actual
environment
testing the ideas early on with the
users can enrich the process
also it is easier to evaluate our
understandings
when we have something tangible to test
with
throughout the development process of
leo
several mockups were made and many
stages of user testing were conducted
moving through these user tests helped
me
to discover more layers to the
experience of writing with tremors
it also validated if my learnings and
understandings
were translated properly into a product
so i listened to their stories
observe them deeply
ask questions to clear my assumption
and finally tested and evaluated my
learnings
to know if it honored their feelings
and this was done multiple times
i think this process has application
far beyond design
it has definitely helped me to better
understand others
and i believe if we can train ourselves
to consciously follow this we ca
we can be kinder and more understanding
towards others
so even if
i’m unable to feel and experience
what a person with parkinson’s tremor
goes through
i still can try and understand their
aspiration
by actively involving and interacting
with them
throughout the product development
process
through this we can build something
that empowers and enhances life
so even if
you can’t think exactly like others
you can definitely think with them
thank you