Camera Obscura: Beyond the lens of user-centered design

So, what then is human centered design if it's failing most of the humans surrounding it? We were trying to broaden the aperture and bring the lens further back to look more coherently at everything that goes on when inserting a product, service, or built environment. What happens when you create something and put it into a human system?

It’s time for our industry and discipline to reconsider the word “user.” We speak about “user-centric design”, “user benefit”, “user experience”, “active users”, and even “usernames.” While the intent is to consider people first, the result is a massive abstraction away from real problems people feel on a daily basis. An abstraction away from simpl... See more

“In design for emergence, the designer assumes that the end-user holds relevant knowledge and gives them extensive control over the design. Rather than designing the end result, we design the user’s experience of designing their own end result.