This month's Frame: Making tech for cyborgs—a new perspective on user-centred design
A framework that explores how we can avoid the pitfalls of user-centred design by embracing the boundary-breaking concept of the cyborg.
User-centred design has a long history. First coined by Rob Kling in 1977 and then becoming central to the work of early UX pioneers such as Don Norman, the credo of the user eventually spilled over into the public weal. As early as 2001, Tony Blair mentioned in a speech that public services have to be “redesigned around the needs of the user; the patients, the passenger, the victims of crime”. Within the world of design, public services and of course the tech industry, this focus on the user became the gold standard. It enabled products and services to be quickly set up, funding to be secured— and ultimately users to be satisfied.
Yet this approach is not without its detractors. As researchers such as John Sherry have pointed out, this laser-focus on individuals can hide the impact and agency of communities. When companies lose track of the second and third order effects of their technologies on communities, they can end up causing harm. AirBnB’s recent woes demonstrate this, with many cities banning the company or introducing strong regulations in order to curb the societal effect of housing stock being kept aside for short-term rentals.
The concept of the user itself has issues. Human beings are more complicated than users. They aren’t fully reducible to user personas—humans often act in unexpected ways, and their identity and values shift over time. Indeed, they can shift moment to moment. As Redström notes, “people, not users, inhabit the world. A ‘user’ is something that designers create”.
Furthermore, the effects of technology on people’s lives are so great that it can no longer be said that people merely “use” technology. In many ways, technology shapes and guides human behaviours, creating new habits and types of social relationships. Prior to the age of social media, it was much more difficult for people to maintain “weak ties”, which have been shown to unlock new opportunities and provide additional social capital.
To design better products that can create long-term goodwill and benefits to society, as well as better represent the reality of people and technology, user-centred design must be jettisoned in favour of a more nuanced approach.
The framework
Donna Haraway, the influential feminist STS scholar, introduced the concept of the “cyborg” into social science with her 1985 essay “A Cyborg Manifesto”. Haraway describes the cyborg as a symbolic entity which is a blend of organic matter and machine, the natural and the cultural. This symbol was used to challenge traditional binaries and boundaries which divide societies and the world itself—for example, gender, nation, species.
Within this manual for feminist practice, the symbol of the cyborg helps people to reject traditional gender roles and identities, promoting a world where gender is fluid and not binary. There is a particular focus on the role of work and technology in creating new ways of being: “Communications technologies and biotechnologies are the crucial tools recrafting our bodies. These tools embody and enforce new social relations for women worldwide”.
There is also an emphasis on collective action and community within the work, but in a way that rejects traditional and hierarchical structures of the past. Haraway encourages people to create their own identities and collectivies instead of adhering to societal norms. “The cyborg is a kind of disassembled and reassembled, postmodern collective and personal self. This is the self feminists must code.” The cyborg concept is a tool for resisting oppressive systems, and creating new forms of identity and community.
We can adopt ideas from Haraway by shifting the focus from users to cyborgs. Key aspects of cyborgs are:
Technological hybridity: cyborgs are a blend of humanity and technology and cannot be reduced or split into a smaller category
Interconnected: the cyborg is connected with other cyborgs and technologies, and is not a true “individual” in that sense
Fluid: cyborg identity is constantly changing as new connections are made and new technologies enter the system
Transgressive: the cyborg breaks down boundaries and acts in a way that does not follow expected rules
Using the framework
Let’s consider the advantages that lie within adopting this framework, even if temporarily, as a corrective to traditional user-centred design.
Firstly, by leaving aside the “user” and focusing on a “hybrid”, designers can put aside artefacts such as user personas or user archetypes—which are often accused of being reductive and an incomplete picture of reality. Designing for a hybrid also gives more agency and importance to the role of technology alongside other attributes such as personality, habits and personal history.
The fluidity of cyborgs as opposed to the static nature of users is important. Personas and archetypes are static snapshots of people’s lives, and often need to be updated with new data. Creating products with fluidity in mind—perhaps by better incorporating speculative design techniques and foundational user research into the process—could make this process more efficient.
Emphasising the interconnectedness of cyborgs helps create more awareness of the broader societal implications of a new product. Instead of conducting a box-ticking exercise to assess the potential harm or benefit of a new product after it’s already been designed, bringing that society-wide interconnectedness to the very beginning of the design process could be a more effective way to keep design teams on the right track from the get-go.
Furthermore, the interconnectedness of cyborgs have, by their definition, diverse perspectives built in—by incorporating races, genders, differing levels of ability, the cyborg represents all perspectives. The cyborg is radically inclusive, a more robust category than a selection of users which can fall prey to selection bias.
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, the cyborg is transgressive. It does not play nicely with norms and rules. We enter ever newer and yet more uncertain times, with ongoing economic headwinds and instability all around. Perhaps it’s wiser to design for the unpredictability of a cyborg rather than the comfort of a model user?
Frames is a monthly newsletter that sheds light on the most important issues concerning business and technology.
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