ZX

Transcendent Experience

“What I mean by good design is helping people find their natural, proper place in the cosmos.”  – Richard Buchanon.

In the months before his death, Abraham Maslow was considering another level for his famous Hierarchy of Human needs, a level at the very top, to come after Self Actualization. He died before fully integrating his intriguingly-named “Theory Z” into the framework and few people know about the real pinnacle of Maslow’s pyramid – Self Transcendence.  

Theory Z is about transcending our own needs, hang-ups, and inward focus and attending to the people and the world around us. When we achieve Self Transcendence we connect with “significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos." Maslow described this “holistic level of human consciousness” as the pinnacle of human experience. Buddhist nun Pema Chodron describes it as the important connecting principle of warmth. Yet, the modern discipline of User Experience Design does not prioritize it and the connected environments we inhabit today grow cold because connectivity is not the same as connection.

Design for Warm Experience

The design principles evident in Shaker design that I’ve highlighted in this book are key components of what I call a Transcendent Experience or ZX (after Maslow’s theory for self transcendence “Theory Z”). Shaker material and spiritual culture has been both source and inspiration for my understanding of designing for warm user experience.

  • Conversation: the designed world evolves through respectful conversation between maker and user as both the method and result of design

  • Self-Actualization: a scaffolding of support nudges the user toward becoming their best self so that they may better serve a shared cause

  • Cohesion: through a keen sense of belonging to something bigger than themself the user may realize both gratitude and reciprocation

I propose the term ZX as a new perspective on User Experience (UX). When the two terms are compared, the shortcomings of the latter are self-evident; the tools and methods of Human-centered Design must be applied to connecting the user to the world outside their own skin as opposed to the isolating service of their individual and ephemeral needs alone.

Intriguingly, the traits that Maslow observed in Self Transcendent people have an uncanny parallel to the qualities we can observe in Shaker culture.

Maslow observed that Self Transcenders:

  • share a devotion to a calling outside of themselves,

  • are “meta motivated” by higher ideals and values such as justice, truth, beauty, goodness, and unity,

  • are far more likely to be innovators because they tend to see what exists in potential,

  • see mystery as intriguing, not problematic

  • have holistic views of the world, 

  • speak the language of poets, mystics, and profoundly religious people, 

  • perceive the sacred within the secular, see the sacredness of every person and every living thing

Getting Over Ourselves

Shaker made objects reflect all of these tendencies. They embody a spirit of ingenious service to the people who used them as well as to the communities in which they were used. This spirit strengthened and gave meaning to the relationship between the user and the built world around them. 

Of the Shakers’ significant contributions to the American design canon one is yet unsung; furniture, tools, and buildings all work in concert to produce an intentionally-designed and human-centered user experience (UX) – and the prevailing characteristic of that experience is warmth. Buddhist teachers and our national science bodies alike tell us that psychological warmth is a connecting principle prioritized by both the biological brain and spiritual heart.

This book explores how warmth materializes in Shaker design through themes of connectivity. These are mechanisms of self transcendence, for getting over ourselves.

Connectivity ≠ Connection 

In the age of information we’ve learned that living in worlds of unfathomable quantities of data does not ensure we can trust it, make sense of it, or utilize it. Data is not the same thing as knowledge.  Likewise, we must now learn that connectivity is not the same thing as connection. In order to thrive, humans need to experience the interrelatedness between themselves and the world around them. But the modern commercial, social, and educational frameworks that enable our daily interactions and transactions don’t prioritize the type of connections that are crucial to our physical and mental wellness.

We need to experience meaningful connection with other people, with our own community, with other communities, and with all living and even non-living things. Numerous studies of the dimensions of wellness and health psychology show that this connection helps us realize gratitude and compassion, strengthens our sense of self worth, and supports our tendencies toward reciprocation and justice. For the individual such effects are determinants of reduced stress, anxiety,  blood pressure, depression, heart disease, and other illnesses. For communities such effects are like “social glue” increasing societal cohesion, unity, and harmony. But the digital worlds built all around us are not designed for that. They are in fact, too often designed to prevent it.

Even the systems we call “social media” don’t necessarily connect us in meaningful ways to other life on earth or to the environment. This is critical because we feel connected but these channels have their own priorities and throttle our true awareness of the world around us. For example, most e-commerce sites do little to support our understanding of the impact of our consumer behaviors on other people, or the world, let alone the potential for our good choices to help improve circumstances.  As a result, our behavior can negatively impact other people, other communities, and the environment without our knowledge and in ways many of us would never knowingly go along with.  

The lack of transparency limits our ability to make conscientious choices. Designers focus on usability, utility, and desirability but don’t prioritize our conscience as a part of user experience. Consumers, stakeholders, clients, and customers need ways to see over the impediments blocking our eyes and our hearts from the downstream impact of our behaviors. We need transcendent user experiences that facilitate healthy connectedness to the world outside our own skin.