There is this television my friend owned, he has never switched it on manually and so to him this television set is the latest tech. Damn, who doesn’t want a TV without a button?

One day, the remote control got worse and he could not watch his TV. This TV is the latest tech I’m sure, but is the design human-centred? You might argue it’s the latest trend and so a button isn’t necessary and then again the question pops up, are the users ready for a quantum leap in technology?

Products that have span through the years and impacted generations are products that people didn’t notice the change, eg, Coca-Cola and Apple. The iPhone has successfully evolved into a product with the newest and most cool features and yet the changes each year go undetected.

The experience of my friend taught me a very valuable lesson…

As a designer, EMPATHY is the number one thing to consider when conceptualizing a product.

Designing for the human is very essential. Not your idea to design the next big thing, not the ego of being called the badass designer, but the empathy that comes in designing something that can solve someone’s problem not compound to it.

Most designers have almost forgotten what it is to design with empathy. Just last week, I bumped into a glass door with no idea whether to pull, push or slide and it was embarrassing.

So before we go ahead to ideate, implement and prototype, putting the user first is important. I think the user should grow into the technology, he should make the transition without having to learn anything new, let him not experience the pain of stopping to think before using the product.

When next your design, let it be for the user.

Joseph Kalu