Experience Design in Social Innovation — Starting a Conversation
I recently facilitated a conversation with students as part of the Masters of User Experience at Wintech/University of Victoria. In lieu of a traditional ‘lecture’, I decided to sit together and whakawhanaungatanga, building our relationship through the act of speaking about who we are, more than what we do as designers — in fact just as people.
The importance of sitting together, face to face and eye to eye is important in all places we go and especially pertinent considering my intent to have a moment of shared self enquiry. To deal with concepts of power and privilege and raise questions about our role and impact as designers (i.e people) in the social impact and innovation space (or anywhere else for that matter).
Understanding Others
The importance of empathy is spoken about frequently in design thinking and human centered practice. And as with anything, it is important that we critically consider our views and practices of empathy. So our conversation lead us to consider the distinction between empathy (an ability to understand and share someone’s feelings) vs sympathy (evoking feelings of pity or sorrow for someones circumstances) (See: Brené Brown’s talk about empathy at the RSA — and her other talks about vulnerability and shame too!).
There is debate not only about the ‘meaning’ or definition of empathy, also whether that the act of empathising is wholly ‘good’ and of benefit for society. Paul Bloom (a Yale psychology professor) explores the role empathy plays in moral lives, and the negative implications we may need to consider. In it, he distinguishes forms of ‘empathy’ and makes a case for ‘compassion’ instead.
"Compassion involves concern and love for your friend, and the desire and motivation to help, but it need not involve mirroring your friend’s anguish.” — Paul Bloom
Again, this is not to say that the practice of empathy is a problem per se, rather that we need to consider how we are working with it, and importantly why. Simply acknowledging that nothing is ever wholly good, nor wholly bad.
Something that is less explicitly discussed or practiced in design thinking, is the need to deeply understand ourselves, as well as others. And the influence we have on peoples lives, through the approaches and processes we apply and the decisions we get to make along the way.
Awareness of self is so important, at the end of the day being a ‘designer’ is not about the approaches or methods we apply, or the activities or tools we use, or even about the specific things we make or produce. Being a designer is about being a facilitator of change, by creating something, for someone, for some reason.
The only true resource we have as practitioners is who we are and how we show up everyday.
Understanding Ourselves, as Well as Others
In understanding ourselves, we need to consider our perspectives, experiences and beliefs including our personal and societal ideologies. These are our systems of ideas and ideals, normative beliefs, conscious and unconscious biases that we have as individuals, families and whānau, communities and as a society.
Understanding our own cultural context is as important as understanding others; our world view — our theory of the ‘world’, our reality — that we use for living in it and with others. What we don’t believe may be as important as what we do.
Its important that we understand our own construction of identity — not only specifically what we believe makes us who we are, but about what actually defines identity in the first place.
We discussed how our views of identity have shifted over time (and will continue to), an example of which is definitions of gender. How more and more we have moved away from categories (“I am male or female”), to understanding gender as a spectrum. And now starting to understand that gender is in fact fluid and self-determined. So imagine how important this understanding of identity is, when you consider working with people who identify as LQBTIQ (queer, trans* and takatāpui).
The cognitive biases all humans have influence the way we see ourselves as well as others (without going in to the specifics about the types of biases — there is plenty of research available on this). We need to consider how we can be conscious and aware that they exist, and how they influence us and the way we work.
Power and Privilege
I put forward my concepts of power and privilege, not because I believe these to be the only ‘truth’ or the definitions; but rather to share where I have come to and where I continue to explore, in terms of who I am and the influence I have on the world and those around me.
The meaning of power, for me, is the ability to influence outcomes. As such, we designers have the balance of power in the approaches we take, as the ones influencing outcomes and making decisions every step of the way that do so. Certainly more so than those that are impacted by the things that we make.
Decisions such as who we involve in our process, and more importantly who we decide not to (See: Sinead Burke — Why Design Should Include Everyone). How we involve people and to what degree namely, how often and the quality of this — are they our ‘subjects’ or are they the ‘experts’ and decision makers. Here I introduced Liz Sanders Map of Design Research to highlight some possible distinctions in approaches and how to consider our own practice when engaging with social impact specifically.
Our definitions and practice of ‘co-creation’ need to be informed by our understanding of power dynamics and the power that we innately hold as the designer in these situations.
Of course, the concept of privilege is more nuanced and complex than I have space for here or in an hour long conversation. However, in this context for me privilege is as much about the experiences we don’t have, as it is about those we do. In my life I have been fortunate enough not to have experienced significant poverty, or institutional racism, or inaccessibility to healthcare.
For example, I can speak about what it is like to identify as a woman, but cannot speak ‘on behalf of’ women; as I do not know what it is like to be a non-european woman, an indigenous woman, or someone who has transitioned, or anyone else who identifies as a woman who has had different experiences to mine (See: Intersectional Feminism, to understand intersectionality and its importance).
So I cannot speak to or for these experiences, and likely can never truly understand them — no matter how much I engage with people, and use appropriate and detailed research methods.
This becomes increasingly important to be aware of when working in social impact. A distinction between commercial and social innovation was also raised, not from a method perspective, but rather in terms of context and intent. (See: Understanding the differences between commercial and social innovation — Kelly Ann Cunningham).
When we intend to work and deal with social outcomes and impact, our responsibility and duty of care as designers becomes much more important; in fact critical.
Our Responsibilities
As designers, we are not neutral, nor should we be. Our world views and experiences are the lenses we wear to understand and construct the reality we live and work in. We can not take these off. Instead, we can learn to recognise that these are our ways of seeing and reacting to the world and those around us. These can in fact become our strengths, in understanding the world more deeply and with the humility that comes from acknowledging that we are human.
We cannot and therefore should not speak for others. Co-creation tends to be framed as involving people in our processes, as subjects or because they are our subject matter experts. For true social innovation we need to be empowering people to lead their own processes, building capacity and capability for people to speak and make decisions on their own behalf. (This lead to a powerful conversation about citizenship and empowerment, that I will share in a follow up piece).
Connect and speak from ‘where we stand’. Connecting with who we are and being fully present and authentic in that knowledge requires bringing the full gambit that is ‘me’. In Te Ao Māori (Māori world view) the concept and act of whakapapa provides us a meaningful analogy and practice for being who we are and bringing this holistically in to our world and with others.
Kei te whakapapa ngā tātai, ngā kōrero rānei mō te ao katoa, nā reira ko ngā whakapapa he whakawhanaungatanga ki te ao, ki te iwi, ki te taiao anō hoki .
Whakapapa is the recitation of genealogies or stories about the world, so whakapapa are ways by which people come into relationship with the world, with people, and with life. (Te Ara 2011)
It is important to know, that there isn’t a right way to be or to connect with who we are, this is and will be different for all of us.
Meet people where they are. This is as much a practical act as it is a way of being as a person. When working with those with lived experience of the social impacts and challenges we are dealing with, it is our duty to meet them where they are, physically, emotionally and spiritually. This speaks to acknowledging the power and privilege institutions and designers have in these situations — we need to meet those we wish to work with ‘where they stand’. (See: Mana: The power in knowing who you are — Tama Iti, Tedx Auckland)
“Te ka nohi ki te ka nohi. Dealing with it eye to eye” — Tama Iti (Ngai Tuhoe/Waikato/Te Arawa)
This can be in the physical act of going to their home, community group or perhaps Marae, or at least considering the implications of inviting people in to institutions that they have been impacted by or do not see themselves reflected in (as well as considering the accessibility challenges for participating). It is in considering the emotional wellbeing of people being involved in our processes at all, without making assumptions and judgements about people’s ‘vulnerability’.
It can be in the act of acknowledging the spiritual views, needs and practices of those we are working with; this is incredibly important considering Aotearoa as a bi-cultural nation, appreciating and valuing Te Ao Māori and our responsibilities under Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi).
This signals for me the start of a conversation, of shared self enquiry, contributing to a discourse where we ask ourselves questions about who we are and the impact that we are having on the world. Not only for ourselves as designers, but as humans. As people in relationships, in family and whānau, in communities, workplaces and as a society.
What does power and privilege mean for you? What experiences of power and privilege have you had? How do these shape the way you view the world and people? And how can we meet people where they are?
This is the first part of the conversation, a follow up piece will continue the discussion. Including understanding subject and context in social impact; namely the definition and challenges of ‘wicked problems’, building capacity and capability to deal with emergent issues, understanding social capital (and relational models for understanding people) and being trauma informed as practititioners.
For those of you that made it this far, thank you for your time. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the Master of User Experience organisers and students I spoke with, for their time and contributions.
I would greatly appreciate you sharing your views with me and others in any and all forums and mediums! What resonated with you in this? What was uncomfortable or perhaps even offensive? What or who needs to be included in this conversation? What is missing?
As with any good enquiry, this is more questions than it will ever be answers.
Some further reading recommendations:
Empathy:
Against empathy — Paul Bloom (Boston Review)
The Baby in The Well — The Case Against Empathy — Paul Bloom (The New Yorker)
Against Empathy by Paul Bloom; The Empathy Instinct by Peter Bazalgetter — Review (The Guardian)
The role of designers; Power and Privilege:
Design in the Iron Cage Part 1 and Part 2 — Michael Palmyre (HT: Amy Stoks)
A Designer’s Code of Ethics — Mike Monteiro
Design Education’s Big Gap: Understanding the Role of Power — George Aye
