From 1:1 to 1:Many—Humans, Artefacts, & Ecosystems Thinking

First, by focusing on the user, UCD has a tendency to obscure the experiences of other participants in the systems we design — those who aren’t end users, per se, but who interact with or are affected by the 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

Designers are taught that their job is to represent the people who will use our products. We "empathize" with them and put their needs at the center of our decision-making process. As companies scale up, their priorities and incentives become less and less aligned with the people using their products. Bad things happen as we stop solving people pro... See more

3 Key Stakeholder Groups — All peoples, all non-humans, all planet — expanding human-centred design’s stakeholders from just ‘business and target users’ to ‘all peoples (across the supply chain, related communities, and ‘invisible’ humans), all non-humans, and all planet’

The main difference between for example user-centered design (“There are only two industries that call their customers 'users': illegal drugs and software”) is that in design for emergence the user has control. Design is sort of decentralized.