To Design is To Listen
In today’s fast-paced world of innovation, we crave to design new things and aim to ship more products as soon as possible. But diving into design without genuinely understanding our users is like sailing without a compass. We could end up making the wrong solution–a costly mistake. Yet, it’s alarming how often we forget to listen and instead rush into solutions.
The importance of the human element in a digital age
People are complex and not just numbers on a survey. Our way of thinking is mainly influenced by many factors, from historical to cultural nuances. People living in Jakarta may see things differently than those in London. Similarly, young mothers may have different ways of caring for their children than more mature mothers. Big Data (and now AI) can capture lots of information quickly, but they can only capture ‘thin data’ — a set of data points missing the cultural nuances that shape human choices.
In her TED talk, Tricia Wang exposed the cost that Nokia had to pay because they relied too much on ‘Big Data’. Having access to myriads of data points, Nokia suffered from a false sense of certainty — or illusion of control. They believed that the smartphone was a fad, a short-lived sensation, because it wasn’t captured in their dashboard.
Over-reliance on Big Data made Nokia overconfident, so they ignored the signal of a new age, which can only be seen on the ground. Big Data may be useful in evaluating what we already know, but hardly effective to capture what’s coming. Well, the rest is history. We know where Nokia is today, a mere fraction of what they were in the early 2000s.
“Not everything valuable is measurable” —Tricia Wang
Listening isn’t just a buzzword in design and innovation; it’s the essence. To listen means to put our biases aside and try to empathise with people’s lives. It means to free ourselves of prejudice and instead aim to understand how and why people see the world in their unique way.
To listen means being interested because we care and want to understand better, not to satisfy our ego. To listen means to respect. And when we truly listen, we unlock the potential to create solutions that resonate, not just decorate.
Listening to illuminate blind spots
We often suffer from the curse of knowledge, making it hard to see from the fresh eyes of other people. As we know something, our brain tends to take shortcuts to make thinking more efficient. We know so much that we forget what it’s like to know nothing. That’s why we use incomprehensible buzzwords, mistakenly create sophisticated user interfaces for people with low-tech literacy (hence making it less user-friendly), or invent new products that are too expensive for the market.
Doug Dietz took immense pride in his newly designed MRI scanner at GE. But his perception was called into question as he saw a little girl terrified and cried before entering the MRI room. As explained in his Ted Talk, it was a surprising experience for him, as Doug never knew that his MRI machine could be frightening. Doug wasn’t aware because he’s an adult and thinks like an adult. He was blinded by the curse of knowledge. That moment made him wonder if he could improve the MRI experience for kids.
With renewed purpose, Doug dig deeper to find a better experience. His team observed how children play in their natural habitats, understanding their preferences and interactions. In addition, he consulted with paediatricians to enrich the insight. The outcome? An MRI room reimagined as an adventure, customised with engaging sound effects, captivating murals, and soothing scents. The MRI experience was transformed, reducing the anxiety levels of its young users. Even better, it’s much more delightful.
Doug wasn’t just redesigning the product. He reimagined the entire experience through the lens of a child’s perspective. He empathised and listened thoughtfully, immersed himself to understand what a hospital room means to a child, identified the gap, and transformed it from a frightening experience into a delightful adventure.
Listening to local nuances
Our reality is shaped by our context and history. When we listen carefully, we engage in sensemaking. We begin to see the bigger picture, understanding the structures that form reality. We have our own ‘habitus’ affecting our agency and way of thinking. For instance, consider a fridge. Cultural practices and environments between Indonesia and other countries, like the UK, would significantly influence how people use the fridge.
Indonesian households still have access to local sellers that sell unpackaged fresh produce (e.g. fish, vegetables and fruits) door-to-door, reducing the need for bulk purchasing and extensive refrigeration. Most families also prefer freshly cooked dishes, which require variety of spices and hours of preparation. So, as most fresh produce and spices are sold without packages, refrigerators must provide ways to prevent different odours from affecting the quality of other fresh produce, while maintaining the freshness of the ingredients. On the other hand, refrigerators could be different needs in the UK, where most foods are fully packaged and people tend to buy in bulk.
Listening is about understanding the context in which behaviour arises, not just interpreting events in isolation. A product’s significance is shaped by a consumer’s self-perception and cultural context. Tapping into local nuances will lead to more opportunities for innovation.
E-fishery, as explained by Gibran Huzaifah, became the first aquaculture unicorn globally by having continuous engagement and prototyping directly with fish farmers in Indonesia. Only by doing so does E-fishery know that fish feed is just too expensive, highly fluctuates and takes most of the farmer’s expense, yet most of it goes to waste. And that’s where E-fishery fills the gap: to create products allowing farmers to maintain their farms efficiently, hence increasing their output. Which, ultimately, improves the farmer’s well-being.
Similarly, Nadiem Makarim struggled to navigate through the bustling traffic of Jakarta in late 2000s. This experience inspired him to launch Gojek in 2010, later became the first unicorn in Indonesia in 2016. Gojek started with motorcycle, as it was the most prominent (until today) vehicles in the country. The name ‘Gojek’ is derived from ‘ojek,’ which refers to local freelance (though unregulated) motorcycle drivers. Make it easier for new users to understand the value Gojek aim to deliver.
Their integrated e-wallet, Gopay, was developed in 2016 in response to a specific challenge: most drivers rarely had exact change, forcing customers to pay more than the initially agreed-upon price. Gojek later merged with Tokopedia in 2021, completing the logistics and e-commerce value chain and becoming one of the largest tech enterprises in Southeast Asia. Nadiem and Gibran experience the customer’s struggle first-hand and make valuable solutions to address it.
Listening to the bigger system
While understanding people’s behaviour is crucial, stepping back to see the bigger picture is critical to addressing more significant problems. By doing so, we can discern the signal from the noise and focus on issues that yield the most significant impact. That was what Muhammad Yunus did when he founded Grameen Bank.
Muhammad Yunus returned to Bangladesh in 1972 after years of living and teaching abroad. Despite his high hopes for the newly independent country, he was met with extreme famine a few years later. So, he ‘discarded’ what he had previously learned and decided to explore this problem of poverty rigorously. He took action and got down to the grassroots level, engaging directly with the low-income communities in the village of Jobra. What he found was surprising: a mere sum of $27 could lift 42 people out of poverty.
At that time, traditional banks required collateral for loans, a barrier almost impossible to tackle by the low-income community. Deemed not ‘credit-worthy’, low-income families often gone to predatory loans with massively high-interest loans to fund their small businesses. Accumulated high-interest loans, coupled with the inherent risk of doing business–especially for those with limited experience–often led to a vicious cycle of poverty.
Therefore, Yunus decided to offer more than loans; he transformed financial sectors by creating a new system that was accessible, understandable and, above all, tailored to the underserved community. The result? Microcredit model that has empowered millions and broken the cycle of poverty. It wouldn’t be so impactful and may be short-lived if he only lent money without understanding the big picture of the system. His work was hugely transformative as he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for what he did through Grameen Bank.
(Disclaimer: In some cases, microfinance can also become a new form of exploitation by greedy corporations and expose the borrower to the culture of social shaming, but that’s a topic of another article. This example mainly emphasises the transformative idea Yunus took due to a deep understanding of the problem).
Conclusion
In an era where technology evolves rapidly, listening with empathy and genuine interest should be our vital starting point. The profound insights of innovation rarely come from fancy technology and Big Data, but lie in the people’s struggles, hopes and needs, which can only be uncovered through authentic listening to the people–on the ground.
So, before you dive into your next project, ask yourself: What do I know, and what don’t I know? Who should I be listening to? How can I listen more effectively?
Hopefully, taking this small step could set you on a more insightful and rewarding design journey.
