Phenomenology is a philosophical discipline that studies the structures of conscious experience. It emphasizes the importance of descriptive first-person accounts of subjective experiences as a means to understand the world. keeping in mind a phenomenological approach to UX design can help designers:
1) Define what empathy looks like in their own design process.
2) Ask critical questions about the societal impact of design.
(It is also my view that if you become compelled to talk about phenomenology after reading this, it will be worth the inevitable small jolt of anxiety you will face when you eventually have to pronounce it out loud.)
The Project of Phenomenology
It is a commonly held sentiment that true knowledge about the world comes from objective facts that can be measured by tools and instruments. Phenomenology argues, that although this type of knowledge is incredibly important, it is not our only access to a true understanding of the world. Knowing the number of rain droplets that will fall from the sky would not get us any closer to understanding the phenomena of rain than being outside during a rainstorm would. People first encounter the world through experience, not by holding a ruler up to its contours. The project of phenomenology is to investigate how we make sense of the world through our subjective experiences and the conditions which make these experiences possible. A phenomenological approach calls for looking at the descriptive first-person accounts of experience that is prior to our attempt to rationalize them.
Empathy in the UX Research Process
The UX research process aims to understand the “why” behind user behavior and qualitative data is a rich source for uncovering it. In order to translate user behavior into insights that can be used for actionable design decisions, designers must be able to empathize with the personal experiences and motivations of their users. When conducting user interviews or usability tests, using a “think out loud” method for participants who are interacting with an interface allows us tap into their phenomenological first impressions. UX designers will gauge the perception of usability a product has and a phenomenological approach can help us be fine tuned in decoding the “whys” behind that perception. The French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty investigated the conditions of human perception to uncover how our perception is colored by our bodies.
The Phenomenological Concept of the “Lived Body”
Perception is commonly thought to be the ability to observe something through our senses. Merleau-Ponty argues that perception is not a causal process of the body, where our senses receive and interpret the properties of objects. Instead, perception is embodied and actively conditions the nature of our experiences.
Embodied perception is the idea that we perceive the world both by and through our bodies. The “lived body” is the body as experienced by ourselves. It involves the possibilities our body affords us, how we are physically oriented towards an object, how we interact with objects or choose to direct our attention, and our past experiences. Therefore, perception involves all of our bodily senses, but there is no such thing as a “pure sensation” that has a causal stimulus-response. The objective properties of an object mean nothing outside of our perception of them, and our embodied perception influences how we derive meaning from that object.
What Might Embodied Perception Look Like?
In an essay titled, “ Cézanne’s Doubt (1945),” Merleau-Ponty writes about how Paul Cézanne’s paintings are an exemplar of the lived perspective expressed through the medium of painting. His paintings do not depict scenes using the renaissance technique of linear perspective which rationalizes space on the canvas. At the same time, they are not purely impressionistic. The painting below depicts a scene as it would appear to our perception. Merleau-Ponty writes,
“By remaining faithful to the phenomena in his investigations of perspective, Cézanne discovered what recent psychologists have come to formulate: the lived perspective, that which we actually perceive, is not a geometric or photographic one.”
Impact of Design: What it Means to Design for the “Lived Body”
Designing for the “lived body” means not only considering technology an interface, but the body an interface as well. The design of technology affects how we experience the world and keeping in mind the lived body requires us to acknowledge that all users come from different backgrounds, with different experiences and pre-dispositions. It is the goal of UX designers to uncover and empathize with their user's personal lived experiences. Research strategies like asking open-ended questions and allowing breathing room for participants to go on their own tangents during user interviews can help to uncover and empathize with their pre-dispositions.
A phenomenological approach also requires us to be observant of how people are approaching technology, not just interpreting its signifiers. If we pay attention to how the body can color our perceptions, designing for things like accessibility is no longer an additive afterthought, it becomes embedded into the UX research process.
