Are more companies addressing user-centered design?
I think the term “humanizing technology” has become a buzzword of our time. But I would argue that it’s more than technology that we want to humanize. We want to humanize every aspect of our daily lives. That’s why the term user-centered design is too limiting. It refers to the physical and cognitive. I would prefer to talk in terms of human-centered design, which takes into consideration the physical, cognitive, social, cultural and the emotional. Those are needs that designers should be striving to address. The beauty of your products has played a major role in their success. Is aesthetic appeal enough? One has to be careful in design. Design has to work on more than one level. What I mean by that is, if you’re making an item that is supposed to do something in the kitchen, albeit a tea kettle or a juicer, it should perform the function well and be aesthetically beautiful too. The two are not mutually exclusive. I don’t think, as Philip Johnson once said in a New York Times article,
