Humane Design is More than Ethical High Ground

Cyber Salon's meeting last week on 'Towards Humane Design' at the ICA promised to explore the issues and tensions that designers face 'when working to a commercial brief as well as maintaining social responsibility'. UN's own Nico Macdonald was in the chair and raised many questions about human-centred design as a starting point for discussion.

But, despite interesting contributions from speakers including Ken Garland, who wrote the original 'First Things First' design manifesto; Teal Triggs of Kingston University, who represented the educator's perspective; and Luke Nicholson of Ethical Media, there was a lack of debate about what 'humane' design might be.

The audience, mostly drawn from the University of Westminster design students, was more interested in the ethical dimension, specifically in getting jobs that did not compromise their political beliefs. What constituted ethics – or indeed, whose ethics? - was not raised either, with the result that the potential for a discussion about the meaning of design in society was lost.

It was also depressingly familiar to find no interest among them in the idea of designing with use in mind. "Art" was frequently substituted for "design" and the impression left was that the commercial imperative of designing for a particular user group was unattractive while the social imperative was overlooked.

All change at the top for System Concepts
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 3 July 2009
 
Leslie Fountain has been promoted to joint Managing Director of leading usability consultancy System Concepts.

Life in UCD immortalised in fiction: you couldn't make it up
Source: UN, 2 July 2009
 
Sarah Herman's fictitious book on life in a user-centred design company has hit the shelves and The Guardian's book pages...

Interfaces Magazine - Issue 79: The Education Issue
Source: Interaction Group, 1 July 2009
 
The latest issue of Interfaces is now available as a free download from the Interaction Website.

Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
Source: UN, 30 June 2009
 
Tool updates make on-site behavioural data collection easier.

Cell Phones that Listen and Learn
Source: MIT Technology Review, 29 June 2009
 
New software tracks a user's behavior by monitoring everyday sounds.

Top Six Don’ts for Usability Testing
Source: FutureNow Inc., 27 June 2009
 
Six tips for creating quality usability tests to ensure useful feedback from testers.

Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
Source: FT.com, 26 June 2009
 
In a recent survey by Global Graphics, 77 per cent of office workers estimate they lose up to one hour a week because business software is difficult to use.

And what do you do?
Source: Dexo Design, 25 June 2009
 
How do you describe your job role? Here are the results of a recent 'Preferred UX/UI Title' Poll.

Most Doctors cite Usability as critical to Electronic Health Record Adoption
Source: TMCNet, 24 June 2009
 
It's all about 'meaningful use'.

Glossy monitors look good but can hurt
Source: QUT, 23 June 2009
 
A new advisory cites research which suggests high gloss monitors make users sit awkwardly.