Are you perpetually underwhelmed by the products you buy?
According to design expert Angus Campbell, this is most probably because they are the result of data-driven design.
Photo: Flickr / Angela Mabray
This trend has dampened creativity and led to products which are boring and also less effective than they should be, says the Auckland University lecturer.
In a world with complex problems, we need creatives to take back the reins and be more innovative, Campbell argues.
To support this position, he cites two examples of human-centred design – that is based on data – going awry.
In the first, designers have been developing a new Bluetooth speaker. In the consulting rooms of the design agency, against a wall, they have stacked different-coloured versions of the speaker.
In the session, when the consultants asked what colour the participants preferred, their choices spread across the whole gamut of colours that they could see.
At the end of the session, though, when the design consultant said to the participants, “Thanks for your time. In appreciation, please take one of the speaker prototypes with you when you leave,” guess what happened?
They all chose the black speaker.
This is a clear example of people saying what they think others want to hear, Campbell says. But when it comes down to it, their real desire can be quite different.
Another example of this comes from an honours student project he supervised while working for the University of Johannesburg.
In 2008 they travelled to Grupo Desportivo Dominique - an integrated community football club on the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe that uses sport for social good.
Photo: Amisom Public Information
One of the student teams decided to work directly with the football players, and after watching a practice game and undertaking interviews with them, they identified a clear problem with their football boots.
Most of these are designed for plush, grassy pitches in Europe, not the hard sand and abrasive dirt that you find in Africa. As a result, the grip never really works because the studs are unable to penetrate the surface, and after a few games they eventually wear down. And then they completely don’t work.
Campbell's students creatively partnered with local cobblers, exploring ways to resole the boots, using discarded car tyres. This seemed a fantastic solution, reusing waste to make much more durable boots with much-improved grip.
However, despite all the enthusiasm from the football players during the process, when they got the final prototype, they couldn’t get even one of the players to test them on the pitch. What had gone wrong?
Even though the students had followed a human-centred design approach, developing these new soles with the football players, what had not emerged in this process was the unforeseen power of social status.
They would all have rather buy new cheap boots, with what little money they had, than repair their shoes in a way only the poorest of the poor would do.
Afterwards, the players explained that having designers come from a university to work with them in their isolated rural community, was such an isolated honour that they could not disappoint the enthusiasm and creativity of the students.
Here, the participatory process of human-centred design distorted the complex reality.
The soccer players wanted to be part of the process but, due to the social dynamics at play, didn't feel they could be honest until right at the end when they admitted would never wear the repaired boots.
Angus Campbell
Photo: University of Auckland
Dr Angus Donald Campbell is the Director of Design and Deputy Head of School, Elam School of Fine Arts, in the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. He has a Doctorate in Development Studies and a Masters in Industrial Design. Originally from South Africa, he worked for 18 years as a design academic at the University of Johannesburg. His university lecturing, practice-based research and freelance design experience is passionately focused on local and sustainable innovation at the complex nexus of social, technological and ecological systems.
This session was broadcast in association with the University of Auckland’s Raising the Bar night, held in August 2022
Photo: University of Auckland
