It’s time to be a better person
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Being a Design Researcher taught me how to be a better person. A better designer. A better human. It taught me how to actively listen, how to never make assumptions and how beautifully different every single human being is. Side note .. In my opinion, never a truer phrase than ‘to assume is to make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’.
Kindness is the secret ingredient to better experiences.
After 10+ years working in inclusivity space and government services, I have seen the pain and suffering that is caused when designers, and researchers, don’t lead their practice with kindness. Our world is full of creations that don’t meet the basic needs of those who need to use them.
Sadly, this might not be a surprise but it is totally avoidable. It is avoidable when we understand the truth of how designs, spaces, experiences are developed, and what we can do to make them better.
We don’t automatically think or talk ‘kindly’
When products are created, a lot hinges on the underpinning research informing design decisions, so we have to think about how our practice might be causing some of these problems.
This shows up most in how we communicate with our participants of research studies. How we invite them to attend based on what our project goals are, and we only ask them questions that give bosses the answers they ‘want’. This is a purely extractive process and one that leaves people feeling hollow and used.
Right from the outset of any project we have not been trained to think and critique methodologies or ‘approaches’ for how kind or inclusive the communication and set-up are. This skews the end results away from true needs understanding and towards your interests instead.
This might be making you feel uncomfortable, or maybe you disagree. I believe that as Design Researchers, we think our job is inherently good, and often the thinking stops there. We don’t consider that our methods might not be as kind or inclusive as we think they are.
… and we haven’t been expected to! I think that’s an issue for the practice of Design and User research on the whole.
So please take this is an opportunity to reflect and build kinder communication into your practice. This is your opportunity to take ownership of your practice and acknowledge the conversations where you’re focusing on your project ‘wants’ instead of real human ‘needs’.
Practicing being kind
Now, ‘kindness’ is a word not often discussed as a core component of research, sadly.
I would love one day to see ‘has to be a kind communicator’ in a job ad! But until then, I ask that we all strive to embody Kindness as research practitioners, designers, creatives.
I ask that you think about research as an opportunity to give back, to do something for someone else, not what they can do for you. This lies within how we speak about and to our participants, customers, clients, users.
It takes work to unlearn practices embedded in design research approaches, in a world where we set goals defined on what we or a client ‘need’ to ‘get out’ of the research. Rarely do ‘business needs’ align with their core audience needs, even rarer does a business think about the positive opportunities provided to them if we genuinely put the audience first.
Practicing this switch in perspective will quickly identify areas you can bring kinder opportunities and learn for good.
So how does it make you a better person?
Well, you start to think about this in your everyday life. You start seeing the challenges that strangers have, and you start to care more, because you know more.
When you start to observe these needs, you start talking to people differently. You ask far more open questions, you stop when you need that people are uncomfortable, you learn more about everyone and on their terms, not yours.
You also start to see the new possibilities of your user research skills, and they are endless, and everywhere. Finding out truly how people need to navigate the world, feel safe, have independence, take pleasure in the small and the big things, all builds a better life.
When you are kind in your practice from beginning to end you are giving yourself the chance to learn about a whole world of new perspectives. You will learn of the possibilities to make the world better with others, not to feed your own world view.
If you’re still here, I reckon you’re already a kind soul and you want to improve experiences in the world. Let this be a sign to spurr you on and find more opportunities to be kind, to advocate for people with a different life to you, and improve the experiences of many.
Be Kind and start making a real difference.
Alex