UX Machina: Collectives

Portrait of Walt Disney, 1 January 1954 Here i...

What will this head see in 3126? Image via Wikipedia

I might as well throw my hat into the "what is UX?" debate. Why? Well, I have a blog, duh; I can write once and forget about it. Also, I don't see myself writing a book anytime soon seeing how not one publisher has taken the bait. Sad, really. Also, I'm a little annoyed by the use of the word "collective" applied to all things involving more than one person. So I'll start there.

How many places have you seen something about collective or hive mind when referring to social media? The only thing really hive-minded about "hive mind" is the continual use of "hive mind". The same can be said for "collective". These two buzzwords have somehow replaced "team" and "collaboration" with little difference in the outcome. Other previous terms include: "contests", "teamwork", "group think", "collective behavior" (in sociology), and simply "culture".

There are two basic viewpoints when examining modern communication: evolutionary and revolutionary. Apple will have you believe every single one of their products is revolutionary, for example. How else could they make you wet your pants in anticipation of the next iWalletRaper? I'm from the school of thought that all forms of communication are evolutionary; we (meaning humankind) collectively build upon previous technology in order to expedite communication and commerce. Every advance in communicative technology, from the Gutenberg Press to pirate radio to Twitter, has been predicated upon reaching more people with more information, even if motivation varied. If you were Walt Disney's head and woke up in the year 3126, history would simply say the 20th and 21st centuries gave rise to instant global communication. It's where we've been headed since the first messengers were thrown down the bottomless pit of Sparta.

Maybe social media hive mind prophets don't realize most normal people are already part of a collective when they work for a company. The company's culture either fosters collaborative communication among its own employees or it doesn't. People either work together or they don't because of politics, territory, or poor communication. There's nothing terribly revolutionary about any of this.

Modern snake oil is social media as a means to generate wealth. However, missing from all of the wagon-side sales pitching is the context of knowledge and how it is truly gained. Michel Foucault, rhetorical philosopher and all-around brainiac believed knowledge is only gained by relationships and the "objects" containing knowledge are actually empty outside of their context:

These relations are established between institutions, economic and social processes, behavioral patterns, systems of norms, techniques, types of classification, modes of characterization; and these relations are not present in the object; it is not they that are deployed when the object is being analyzed; they do not indicate the web, the immanent rationality, that ideal nervure that reappears totally or in part when one conceives of the object in the truth of its concept.

Michel Foucault The Archeology of Knowledge (1969)

In other words, who is speaking and why do they have the authority to speak about a particular topic? People are not equal and each individual brings something to the table. Knowledge cannot bubble up magically from a group of people. Social media "gurus" who sell the idea that knowledge is free and you only have to churn through Twitter searches look as foolish as Wolf Blitzer reading tweets on air as if they are actual news.

What does this have to do with UX? Several things. First of all, as most professional designers already know, you cannot crowd-source design. But more importantly, you cannot provide a solid customer (read: user) experience if you assume expertise is the result of online conversations and forgo research, usability testing, and proven design principles. As tempting as the latest fad is, be careful of the revolutionary rhetoric. Separate marketing hype from the real experience and knowledge you earned over time.

Finally, keep your collective in your pants. If you need to work with anybody, it's the people who are helping you build your products. They should be part of your discourse community and be included in your communication channels. If your team is not together and focused on building great products, all of the social media dipping will do your company no good. The world-wide hive mind takes a backseat to your own company's team-building and organization. Treat social media feedback and research as enhancements to what you already know.