Shifting Perspective
by Teresa BrazenWe in the user experience design industry talk a lot about keeping the user’s perspective in mind as we make things. User research helps us do that. User testing keeps us in check. And here’s another interesting way to shift your perspective…shake things up and look at it from the object’s point-of-view.
When I watched this video for the first time, I was fascinated on the surface level of aesthetic. I loved seeing words written from the perspective of a pen. And then it struck me that it is also a great reminder of how far we may have to go to really abandon our own way of seeing things. A useful practice when making something for someone other than you.
This video was created by Mike Strasser for his graduate industrial design program at Stanford. He is currently Founder and Managing Partner at the ID firm Think2Build.
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December 3rd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Wow what an inspiring blog post. I feel this on a daily basis, and this sums up good customer relations and design better than anything. To be a great designer you must have the ability to shift perspective and rationalize your decisions very quickly.
Sometimes you have to shift the perspective through which you are looking at your Web site, your designs and even your life to get a better view at how to make your business grow. Its very common for designers to say “no, the client is wrong”. Well sometimes they have a better vantage point as to why things need to be the way they want.
Great post, great great great post.
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Thanks for the comment — I’m so very glad it inspired you. I felt the same way about this video – It would be a great thing to revisit from time to time as a very visceral, physical reminder about how differently others see and experience things. What better mindset to start making from?
December 15th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Great post and loved the video…very unique. It gives me thoughts on taking different views of my own website and future promotions. Thanks!
Best regards,
Jamie Stern, owner
Allergiesandme.com
December 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Thanks for the comment, Jamie. Glad to hear it was thought-provoking!
Teresa
December 17th, 2009 at 1:40 am
[...] Personality, perspective, and funny pencils Posted in theory, user experience by Dan on December 17, 2009 “Shifting perspective,” as mentioned on the Adaptive Path blog, is an important strategy when designing something that will be used by other people. This video shows a series of experiences, each from an object’s point of view; whether the object is a skateboard, a railroad gate, a robot, or a door handle, each perspective you consider reveals new problems, concerns, and contexts. (Maybe the next step is to consider the pen from the paper’s point of view and the robot from the ball’s point of view.) Anyway, here’s the post/video: “Shifting Perspectives” / “From the Object’s Point of View” [...]
December 17th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Thanks for the post!
Shifting the perspective is one way of looking at it.
On the other hand, I think, it also reminds us of the fact, that there are perspectives that might be “cool” or would sell perfectly but cannot be experiences by the user and therefore shouldn’t be used as starting points for concepts. If you want to explain how to rollerblade, the perspective shown in the video wouldn’t be very helpful, don’t you think?
Anyway, this video keeps us open-minded. Thanks.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:32 am
[...] Adaptive Path Blog [...]