In the scheme of software development, User Experience (UX) is a fairly recent consideration; but as a field of thought, UX is not that new.
Several UX-focused blog posts and articles cite some interesting history:
If we go far back in history, Vitruvius (1st century BC) was probably the first person to lay forth systematic and elaborated principles of design. His three core design principles became very influential:
- Firmitas: The strength and durability of the design;
- Utilitas: A design’s usefulness and suitability for the needs of its intended users;
- Venustas: The beauty of the design.
Vitruvius’ work was an inspiration to people like Leonardo da Vinci, who drew the well-known Vitruvian Man. By empirically measuring and calculating the proportions of the human body, and emphasizing the “utilitas” principle, Vitruvius may be considered the first student of ergonomics and usability. (Mads Soegaard, 2012, http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/05/23/the-history-of-usability-from-simplicity-to-complexity/)
According to author Michael Gelb, Leonardo da Vinci may have been one of the first to take a stab at improving a process:
In 1430, the Duke of Milan commissioned da Vinci to design the kitchen for a high-profile feast. The great Maestro took the job on with his usual inventive flair. In what is considered the first use of the technology (hundreds of years before the Industrial Revolution) da Vinci designed and employed conveyor belts to transport food items to the preparers. He also built what is likely the first sprinkler system for safety measures.
Comically, however, the conveyer belts operated too erratically for the workers and—to make matters worse—the sprinkler system went off, ruining some of the food. (Gelb, Michael. 2001 How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. Dell; Sullivan, Brian 2012 http://boxesandarrows.com/leonardos-kitchen-nightmare/)
The Industrial Revolution
Between Henry Ford’s mass production processes, and the military efforts during WWI and WWII, industrialists began to ask questions like:
- How can we improve the interaction between laborers and their tools to make products more quickly?
- How will improving the design of the cannon improve target acquisition (and thus kill more enemies)?
- How does a design improvement decrease soldier fatigue (as a consequence of a lighter cognitive load)?
These concepts of Human Factors have carried forward from Henry Dreyfuss’ text “Designing for People” to the famous work of The Xerox research division, PARC, which gave form and function to the design of computers for human use (Ali Rushdon Toriq 2015 http://blog.invisionapp.com/a-brief-history-of-user-experience/ ). What is interesting is that it took the Internet (World Wide Web--accessed through graphical user interfaces--GUIs) to show us just how bad design can be.
CA has been producing software for nearly 40 years. Notice that I said ‘producing’ not 'designing'. Don Norman, author of a number of books on design, The Design of Everyday Things, Expanded (2013), Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (2005) and the Design of Future Things (2009) is often considered the first User Experience Professional (and one of the gurus in the field). His focus on observation and including users in the design process opened up the field of human factors and human-computer interactions to what we know today as user experience.
Next time, I’ll talk a little more about what all of this attention to UX can bring to the design of CA products.