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Brian Mila's Essay

The user experience community can support the future of sustainability by refocusing our techniques to include not only the users themselves, but also who the users interact with.

Today we take one user at a time, test that user, and refine our products or ideas. When used correctly, our methods result in products that are beautiful, meaningful, and functional. However, the nature of sustainability (ecology-driven) requires us to take a broader view. In addition to asking how a single user interacts with our products, we need to ask how do others interact with the people who are using our products. In this way we refocus our efforts from having a user-centered view to an organic or holistic view.

This change requires us to develop new tools for testing and evaluation. We need to go beyond the personal interaction with our products and investigate the interpersonal relationships that the user has and how the product affects those relationships. It refocuses our definition of a good design from one that solves the user's needs into one that affects change. The change is a result of a good design, combined with the knowledge of interpersonal interaction that occurs within the context of that design. This change can occur either because of the design, or in parallel with, or even in spite of the design.

By taking a holistic view we can nurture and guide the change in a direction that leads to positive outcomes. To accommodate this, as a community we need to change our view of ourselves. We need to transition from a community that designs beautiful, meaningful, functional products into a community that designs positive behaviors.

Read Tim's essay  |  Read Dave's essay
Read Amy's essay  |  Read Arpana's essay  |  Read Brian's essay  |  Read Guiomar's essay
Read Leina's essay  |  Read Marisa's essay  |  Read Premjit's essay  |  Read Rhys's essay
Read Scott's essay  |  Read Tara's essay  |  Read Jimmy's essay

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