Can ‘User Experience’ be ‘Designed’?
I guess by now everyone would have seen this image. It has been doing the rounds on the social media.
What was your first reaction when you saw this image?
Did you laugh out thinking, ‘The requirements did not come from the end user”, or “This design did not cater to the user needs” or something on those lines?
I assume that most people would have reacted in this manner, which is fair. But I would like you to look at this image from a fresh perspective. I consider this a well ‘designed’ space. I will explain this in a bit.
Although the worn out path stands out, we don’t know how many people actually use the paved path because it does not wear out, Right? Maybe that number is more than the ones using the short cut.
Clearly, there are two types of users here. First ones are those who want to reach from point A to B via a shortest possible path. Second are those who want to enjoy the park, sit by the canal, relax on the benches.
So, lets assume the designer had paved the path that is worn-out, than we would have seen a worn-out path where it is currently paved. Because people who want to enjoy the park would have walked on the grass.
The point I am trying to make here is that no matter how hard you try, you cannot fulfill every users needs and also you cannot anticipate every possible scenario.
The smart thing to do is to design a ‘system’ that allows for deviations and lets the users create their own ‘experiences’.
That is why I said in the beginning that I consider this a well ‘designed’ space because it allowed users to create their own experiences and be creative.
If there were fences on the sides of the paved path that did not allow users to create this short cut path, then it would have been a badly designed space. That would have restricted users to be creative with the system.
Designers don’t “design” the experiences they facilitate users to “create experiences”.
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