About article 1 of The Pendulum series
The article series “The Pendulum – UX with a Shifting Perspective” (in short, The Pendulum) builds on principles demonstrated in the Hebrew-language podcast “המטוטלת – חוויית משתמש בגישה מטלטלת”, referred to simply as “המטוטלת”, and presents a unique approach to designing user experience for complex products and systems.
It teaches how to define intuitive, precise and effective interfaces and UX solutions that bring clarity in complex systems, including data-intensive and process-heavy domains.
This is the first article in the series.
The kitchen that failed
Imagine a world where no one had yet thought kitchens belonged inside homes. Now, picture the very first person who decided to design one.
They handed the builder a list: a refrigerator, a countertop, a stove, and a sink. Sounds like a solid spec, right?
Except… they forgot the user story. They didn’t explain that the story goes like this: you take ingredients out of the fridge, mix them in a pot, move that pot to the stove, and so on.
Without that story, the builder delivered exactly what was requested, yet completely wrong: the countertop was installed at head height, the stove was mounted vertically, and… you don’t want to know what they did with the fridge.
It all starts - and often fails - with the user story
From years of work on complex, data-rich systems at 5IVE UX, we know that if the story is vague or off-target, even the smartest designer will fail to deliver clarity.
When designing for organizations that depend on precision, scale, and trust, success depends on how deeply the design reflects the user's lived experience.
The myth of being user-centric
You might be thinking, “Ah, that’s basic. We already know this stuff.” But stay with me, there’s more to it than it seems.
So, how do you write a user story? Everyone knows the answer: from the user’s point of view. “You are not the user!” the slogans warn us. “You must be user-centric, user-focused!”
This is textbook UX 101, so familiar, so obvious, it’s the first minute of the first class. Yet in practice, despite the best intentions, most product managers, UX designers, and product designers still fail to truly write the user’s story from the user’s perspective.
Not because they lack talent or empathy. It’s because slogans like user-centric are easy to say and extremely hard to live by.
For a deeper look at this tension, see Nielsen Norman Group’s discussion on user empathy in UX design.
Becoming the user
Knowing that you should focus on the user isn’t enough. Intellectually wanting to do it isn’t enough either.
When you ask yourself, “Hmm… what would the user do now? What would Fireman Sam or Doctor Judy or Analyst Ann want to do next?” you often end up with something that sounds like a user story, but isn’t.
To write a story that truly works, you must - even for a brief moment - become the user. Don’t think “He would like to,” or “She would do.” Think: “I want.” “I do.”
For that moment, you are not representing the user; you are the user.
Lessons from Stanislavski
That probably sounds impossible. After all, the user might live a life completely different from yours, with different routines, values, constraints, and priorities.
How can you truly become that person?
In 1936, Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski published An Actor Prepares. He revolutionized theatre by telling actors to stop representing their characters and start experiencing them.
That’s the difference between a mediocre actor and a great one: the mediocre actor imitates the role; the great actor lives it.
The same principle applies to us. When we tell a user story, we are performing a role, the user’s role. To make it believable, we must not represent the user but experience being the user. Otherwise, the story floats twenty thousand feet above reality: it may sound right, but it isn’t.
The next step: distress
But how can we actually do it? How can we “become” another person, the woman booking a flight, the courier receiving a delivery, the analyst managing critical data, the technician controlling a system?
There is a way. The key word is distress. Sounds strange? Distress? That’s what I’ll explain in the next article of this series.
Explore and discuss
Listen to Episode 1 of the Hebrew-language podcast “המטוטלת – חוויית משתמש בגישה מטלטלת”, a deep-dive series where I present a unique approach to designing user experience for complex products and systems. The article series distills selected themes into focused, written insights. Episode 1 on Spotify | The podcast on all platforms
Discuss and comment on this article on LinkedIn.