When Technology meets People

Edited book, 2006

Is technology hard and are humans weak? Technology rational and humans emotional? Is function something for technology and design for human beings? Is it all about functionalism versus humanism? Technology has long been an integral part of our daily lives, but its character has changed over the years. Development takes place more rapidly now than before and technology has become more complex. Human demands on a product’s usability and design have expanded to keep pace with advancing technique. What happens then, when technology meets people? From the point of view of the user it means that we the consumers are expected to learn the use of steadily more complex products in a shorter and shorter time. From the design viewpoint this situation imposes the requirement that products be formed with regard to humans’ capacity to grasp and handle technology safely and efficiently. It means that those working in the field of design must have knowledge of people in terms of their physical, mental, emotional and – not least – cultural make-up, and be able to translate this expertise in the form of user-friendly technical solutions. It is also necessary to know about all the stages in product development accomplished with the help of technology, about the contexts in which this technology is to be used and how these factors affect the final design.