I went to Fediverse yesterday for one contribution one people which I think is so good that I used it with the help of deep translated into German. Here he is:
Today I want to talk to you about why I am the way I am. And by that I mean why I'm so interested in experience design; for the experiences people have with things. Why I get frustrated with things that don't work, don't work well, or aren't easy to use. Why mediocrity pisses me off so much.
Is it a first world thing? An expression of consumer-oriented standards?
I do not believe that.
I think it goes a little deeper than that.
The way I see it, each of us only has a tiny amount of time in this world and then we die. No white winged angels in heaven, no coals of hell, no Elysium, no Tartarus, no Valhalla, no summerland, no fields of Aaru, no coming back as butterflies or cockroaches. Nada.
That's all there is.
This short life.
And we spend part of this life - certainly at the beginning, but very likely also towards the end - being unaware of ourselves and generally pissing our pants. So we have this tiny window of time where we are self-aware. A tiny window of time, shorter than the blink of an eye, in which we can do something, create something, affect other people's lives and make a difference in the world.
And if you see things that way, how valuable is your time on earth becoming?
In fact, it is the most precious thing there is.
So will it kill me if something that could take 10 seconds takes 10 minutes instead? Maybe not immediately - maybe if it's a medical device or an airplane control panel - but yes, it's killing me because I'm wasting what I have the least of: my time here on earth. My life.
If it were just that, it would be bad enough, but it's more than that. Take for example an app that gives you information about local buses: Surely it's not a matter of life and death if the app is difficult to use or not works reliably, right?
Well, it could be a matter of life and death.
Let's say I'm on my way to my daughter's 5th birthday party and I miss my bus because the app isn't working. I end up missing the sight of my daughter blowing out her candles - a very important event in her life and mine. So maybe it's a matter of life.
And maybe it's a matter of death.
What if I'm on my way to visit my dying grandmother and I miss my bus because of this app? I can't be with her in her final moments and tell her I love her one last time.
We must be clear that a bus information app is not a bus information app: it is an object that affects and changes people's lives: either for good or for bad.
It's the object that allows you to see your daughter blow out the candles on her birthday cake, or the object that keeps you from telling someone you love them for the last time.
Objects are valuable not because of what they are, but because of what they enable us to do.
And as people who make objects, we have a great responsibility. A responsibility not to take for granted the limited time each of us has in this world. A responsibility to make this time as beautiful, as comfortable, as painless, as empowering, and as enjoyable as possible through the experiences we have.
Because that's all there is.
And it's up to us to do better.