Interaction and Experience Design – Fundamentals
How it began…
Exactly a year ago on November 9, 2019 I began a rigorous teachers training program with Sivananda Ashram in the path of yoga. It has been by far the most meaningful and enriching experience of my life. My studies have continued beyond the 30 days course and as a seeker I still get amazed each day by what my gurus help me realise. I have often been asked if I have left my designing profession and become a full-time yogi. To which I answer that they are not separate. Yoga is an approach to whatever one does, whether it’s brooming a corridor or making design decision for the entire world, the right attitude vibes out through one’s actions, and the rest follows naturally.
My search for the fundamental make of human interactions and experiences.
As an interdisciplinary designer it wasn’t difficult for me to understand the unity in all forms of design. However, one aspect that always needed to be divided is designing for interactions and for experiences. How do people interact and experience? I delved into the fundamental physiology of humans and found how this works.
Humans are made of three bodies:
· Gross physical body (sthūla śarīra)
· Subtle body (sūkṣma śarīra)
· Causal body (kāraṇa śarīra)
Broadly speaking, the realms of interaction and experience lies in the subtle body, which manifest through the physical body. So if the eye is the physical body, then the ability to see resides in the subtle body. Causal body holds the potential information for the formation of the other two bodies. One can imagine it like a seed that holds the potential for the formation of the tree.
Interaction — An inside-out approach
Humans transact with the outside world with 5 organs of interaction (karmendriyāni):
Vāc — speech / organs for communication
Pāni — hands / organs for grasping
Pāda — feet / organs for locomotion
Pāyu — organs for excretion
Upasthaya — organs for reproduction
It is to be noted that the organ (golakā) itself is different from the ability (indriyam) of the organ, though they may seems integral to each other. Hence, vāgendriyam (ability to speak) is the power of vāc (organ of speech). Life force is necessary for the ability to manifest through the physical body.
Experience — An outside-in approach
Experience is an internal process which humans experience with 5 sense organs (jn͂ānendriyāni):
Srotraya — organs for receiving sound (śabdah)
Tvak — organs for receiving touch (sparśah)
Cakśūho — organs for receiving form and color (rūpa)
Rasanaya — organs for receiving taste (rasa)
Ghrānasya — organs for receiving smell (gandha)
Here too, the organ (golakā) is different from its ability (indriya). Hence srotrendriyam (ability to receive sound) is the power of srotraya (organs for receiving sound).
Cognition — The inner instruments of the Mind
What an individual experiences through various interactions depends on one’s Mind; and there are 4 aspects of the Mind:
Manah — oscillating or emotional faculty of the mind
Buddhih — decisive or rationalizing faculty of the mind
Cittam — memory or subconscious faculty of the mind
Ahamkāra — the notion of “I” or self-identification
The input received through the 5 sense organs undergoes the four cognitive processes of the mind and decides what one experiences. Since the combination of these faculties are different for each individual it is difficult to predict and design for a desirable experience. This is where persona creation comes into play in the design process, wherein a designer understands the behaviour, thinking and motivations of a similar set of people and tries to predict, with an incessant amount of imagination, what the user will truly experience.
Thus, to sum it up, interaction is an inside-out approach, experience is an outside-in approach and its internalised with the faculties of the mind. For all this to work, life force is essential. Or is it? Are humans going to rise above the gross faculties and harness the realms of the cosmic intelligence in future?