UI/UX Origins
Once upon a time, in a place far far away, in a corner of vast universe, UI and UX existed happily.
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9 Jul
UI/UX Origins
Written by Kreatiklan
Tagged as
Business and Brands
Once upon a time, in a place far far away, in a corner of vast universe, UI and UX existed happily. They born together, lived together, and inseparable. But, where do they come? When did they come? Why they become like this? And what makes them happily ever after? Don’t worry we traced it back and decide to give you a modern bedtime story about the UI/UX origins *drum roll*
It was all started with the ancient Chinese philosophy called Feng Shui in 4000 BC. Feng Shui is all about orienting objects in your surroundings to positivity and fortune. The main idea of Feng Shui is to arrange your surroundings to generate positive energy, or sometimes even wealth. It is done by optimizing space, objects, colors and materials of a room or even an entire building.
Arranging objects, matching colors with a goal to generate positive feelings? Sounds a lot like UX! Whether you are a believer or not, we can all agree that Feng Shui is similar to modern interface design.
If the ancient China has Feng Shui, the ancient Greek has their own ergonomic principles. Around 500 BC, the Greek civilizations designed their tools and work spaces to maximize usability and performance. One of the strongest evidence of ancient Greek awareness of ergonomic principles is the design of surgeon workplace setup, as described by Hippocrates.
He stated that “the surgeon may stand or be seated, in a posture comfortable for him”, as well as the arrangement of tools; “they must be positioned in such a way as to not obstruct the surgeon, and also be within easy reach when required.” Hippocrates, the first known UX designer confirmed?
According to Michael Gelb’s book “How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci”, there is a story in 1430 about Duke of Milan whom commissioning da Vinci to design the kitchen for an annual celebration. Da Vinci took the job which then is considered the first use of the technology before the Industrial Revolution even exist. He designed and employed a conveyor belts to transport food items including the first sprinkler system for safety measures. However, that conveyor belts he designed is too much unpredictable for the workers and the sprinkler system went off. This system is messy and didn’t work conveniently. Some people include this story as an early story of user experience design practices and how it should be thought carefully.
Fast forward to early 1900 Frederick Winslow Taylor, a notable mechanical engineer and pioneer of Taylorism or we can called it a Scientific Management method. In regards to make human labor more efficient, Taylor conducted an extensive research into the interactions between workers and their tools. Written in 1911, The Principles of Scientific Management conclude that systematic management is the solution to inefficiency. Taylor’s principles focus on optimizing the relationship between humans and their tools is the ultimate starter to modern UX’s principles.
In 1948, Toyota and Ford are starting the trend of valuing efficiency both the production and engineers. Toyota Production System was designed to respects workers and their environment. Human input was considered crucial and encouraged. Toyota factory workers could immediately stop the assembly line if they think the product is not right and also to improve the process. This represents a key in UX history as it really brought attention to the importance human interaction with their machines. No matter how advanced technology is, the value is dependable to its usability.
There were lots of examples of UI/UX in the past, one of them is Henry Dreyfuss’ design philosophy, which is heavily all about human-centered design. He famously wrote,
“When the point of contact between the product and the people becomes a point of friction, then the industrial designer has failed. On the other hand, if people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient—or just plain happier—by contact with the product, then the designer has succeeded.”
In the 1995, Donald Norman, Apple’s User Experience Architect, start using the term user experience design. As s cognitive scientist, Norman joined Apple as User Experience Architect which making him the first person to include a UX term in his job title. He explains that he invented the term because Norman thought that human interface and usability were too narrow. That’s why he wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with a system, including the industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual in one place.
Believe it or not, it is also safe to say that modern UI/UX design has also been derived from traditional product design. For example, a chair, the design of the it would basically be the UI. While how you feel when you are sitting on it, whether it is comfortable or painful, would be the UX. According to Jacob Nielsen from Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) UX profession is expected to grow from the current about 1 million people to about 100 million people in 2050 which corresponds to 1% of the world’s population.
We are so sorry that our story today is not having any droids, dragons or troops. The modern day cursed them to cling more to their phone. Push the button, call us, and stay tune to more information from us by following @kreatiklan at Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Cheers!
