As Designers, we can’t stop talking about empathy. Empathizing with our users is an integral part of creating a usable and friendly solution (or delightful experience for them. ?) Where we are lacking is empathy with stakeholders — the people who have trusted us with their vision and dream. We feel the account team and, to a certain extent, the delivery team is quite empathetic with the stakeholders. They are committed to their needs so perhaps we can relax here. In more projects than less, and more often than not, we find ourselves pushing back on the demands of our…
We surf the internet to find two things
Things that inspire us
Things that outrage us.
If you are looking for outrage, you are in luck because no matter on which side of an issue you stand, you will find plenty of things that will outrage you. It is easier to engage you in stories that cause outrage than stories that inspire.
Media people know this and they actively use this tendency of ours against us.
If an event itself is not outrageous enough, we can be sure that the reporting of it will add the required dose of outrage…
A lot of people on the internet are asking “What is the problem with the Farm Bill?” There are two things to understand here — the first is that your level of awareness is around the same as mine and you don’t really know what the problems are. The second is your political affiliation has decided the stand you will take on this issue, and most likely that happened even before you had the time to process the information available.
“The workload has increased and there is no boundary between work and life anymore”
“The work is not limited to 9–5, there are calls, meeting at any time of the day”
“Since I am not commuting to work, my boss expects me to work longer hours.”
“I just can’t get away from the work now. With working from home the choice of taking a day off and staying away from work is just not there!”
Does any of this sound familiar? Chances are you are facing some of these challenges yourself, or at the very least, know someone who does…
“Wrong answer”
The comment from the observer was followed by a mild electric shock.
“Ouch!!” the sound from the next room left no doubt how the person answering the question felt.
“Carry on, ask the next question,” said the observer to the volunteer asking questions.
Another wrong answer and another electric shock, however, this time it was not so mild.
“Maybe we should stop?” suggested the volunteer
“No, it is important that we complete it.”
The intensity of the shock kept increasing with each wrong question and the initial “ouch” was turned to a desperate plea to stop the electric…
Like it is easier for a frog to notice the temperature of the water if you throw it in boiling water than throwing it in cold water and boiling it, it is easier to notice the flaws of a system if you are an outsider.
Hamdi Ulukaya was an outsider — an immigrant from Turkey and he couldn’t help but notice the rampant greed in corporate America. He noticed how people are sacrificed to make business gains.
When he started his business, he decided to do things his way rather than joining the bandwagon.
I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.
-Akira Kuosawa
As one of the best film-maker from Japan and perhaps the world as well, Kurosawa had he hands full and there was no time to be wasted in hating. The key to happiness is to keep yourself busy with activities you love and enjoy to keep yourself away from negative emotions like hate, anger and fear.
In 2014 Facebook came to India with internet.org. Mark Zuckerberg claimed that internet access is a basic right and proposed a platform that provided just that to the people who don’t want to pay for data. The catch was that access was only to a handful of services, and behind this facade of philanthropy, Facebook wanted to monopolize the internet. Fortunately for us, the facade was too weak to hold up, and the net neutrality brigade managed to win. The platform never took off in India.
Now Mark is back, and this time he has taken another means to achieve…
Now that you are working from home, you save time you used to spend on the commute, as a result, you should now be having anywhere from an hour to 2 hours extra every day for doing things you love to do outside work — playing an instrument, help your kid with school, painting, photography…whatever it was that you wanted to do. But, is it the reality? Do you have more leisure time? Going by what I hear from everyone I spoke to during the lockdown, it is just the opposite. The leisure time has gone down, and they are…
I don’t think it was pain that made Vincent Van Gogh great — I think his painting brought him whatever happiness he had.
-David Lynch
Navin Harish
Problem Solver, Mentor, Team Builder, Photographer, Artist, Writer, Square Peg in a Round Hole, User Experience Specialist
