UX as Knowledge Work

Thomas Wendt
Surrounding Signiﬁers
@thomas_wendt
thomas@srsg.co
srsg.co
UX as Knowledge
Work
A Few Things About UX You Won’t Learn from
Practice Alone

Thomas Wendt Surrounding Signiﬁers @thomas_wendt
Thomas Wendt
UX Strategist and Researcher
Founder of Surrounding Signiﬁers, a strategy and
design consultancy
Background in continental philosophy, psychology,
and literary theory

http://img103.fansshare.com/pic12/w/non-celebrity/
800/8520_jean_baudrillard.jpg
“We live in a world where there is
more and more information, and
less and less meaning.”
Jean Baudrillard

Theory and Practice

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcQOhwmHeLp1TehynAG2U9WRkAaZQNvE_eFnnY6PoR_Ep56W
http://beckysuewho.ﬁles.wordpress.com/2012/05/bw.jpg
Theory? Practice?

q=tbn:ANd9GcQOhwmHeLp1TehynAG2U9WRkAaZQNvE_eFnnY6PoR_Ep56W
http://beckysuewho.ﬁles.wordpress.com/2012/05/bw.jpg
Both

Theory
thought
disengaged
frivolous
virtual
Practice
action
invested
productive
real
Colloquially...

Theory
foundational
Practice
performative
Traditionally...

Theory
foundational
Practice
performative
Traditionally...
Praxis
informed
action

“Apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals
cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only
through invention and re-invention, through the
restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry
human beings pursue in the world, with the world,
and with each other.”
Paulo Freire

Ancient Greeks
Theory
Practice
Technology
Design

Ancient Greeks
Theory
Practice
Technology
Design
Praxis

http://uxmag.com/sites/default/ﬁles/uploads/evanswireframing/
globalcruise6.png

http://beautifultrouble.org/wp-content/uploads/Beautiful%20Trouble/PRINCIPLE
%20Praxis%20Makes%20Perfect/PR_Praxis%20Makes%20Perfect_Praxis

Framing UX

Framing UX
Semiotics

http://beautifultrouble.org/wp-content/uploads/Beautiful%20Trouble/PRINCIPLE
%20Praxis%20Makes%http://cdn.grin.com/images/preview-object/document.

“A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound
combined with a series of differences of ideas.”
Ferdinand de Saussure

http://beautifultrouble.org/wp-content/http://fanart.tv/fanart/music/382f1005-
e9ab-4684-afd4-0bdae4ee37f2/albumcover/all-eyez-on-

http://beautifultrouble.org/wp-content/http://fanart.tv/fanart/music/382f1005-
e9ab-4684-afd4-0bdae4ee37f2/albumcover/all-eyez-on-
West side
Urban culture
Teenage rebellion
Gangsta rap
MTV
Rural/suburban white kids
Conspiracy theory

UI
tactical
tangible
signiﬁer
UX
strategic
conceptual
signiﬁed
So...
?

UI
tactical
tangible
signiﬁer
UX
strategic
conceptual
signiﬁed
So...
Not that simple

Framing UX
Phenomenology and Embodiment

“Intelligence and understanding are rooted not in
the presence and manipulation of explicit,
language-like data structures, but in something
more earthy: the tuning of basic responses to a real
world that enables an embodied organism to sense,
act, and survive.”
Andy Clark

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tOjzP9CI7tE/STJi66aMyhI/AAAAAAAAAS4/
isVs8IugZJk/s1600/Martin+Heidegger,+Looking+Surprised,+scanned
Design for
Dasein

http://absolutegalore.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/monkey-wrench-
mini1.jpg

Framing UX
Psychoanalysis

q=tbn:ANd9GcSzBSsXw4M5nEcuU4lD8iTyyRw4QJj__s7D06gnoY-
“If knowledge about the unconscious were as
important for the patient as people inexperienced in
psychoanalysis imagine, listening to lectures or
reading books would be enough to cure him. Such
measures, however, have as much inﬂuence on the
symptoms of nervous illness as a distribution of
menu-cards in a time of famine has upon hunger.”
Sigmund Freud

Research and Strategy

restaurant pic
http://zeospot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/restaurant-design-with-
champagne-bottle-the-mira-hong-kong-interior.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSayeL70_X-
G92wLZ7jmQQrjCYw_yrK459O5oEtEBPVAkfhKkv5oQ

Onward

http://cdn.dottech.org/media/2013/02/nexus4.png

data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/
2wCEAAkGBxQSEhQUEhQUFRUUFxQUFBQXFBQVFRUUFBQWFhUUFRQY
HCggGBolHBQUITEhJSkrLi4uFx8zODMsNygtLisBCgoKDg0OGhAQGiwkHyQs
LCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCwsLCws
LCwsLCwsLP/AABEIALkBEQMBIgACEQEDEQH/
xAAbAAACAwEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAADBQECBAYAB//
EADoQAAEDAwIDBAkCBQUBAQAAAAEAAhEDBCESMQVBUWFxgZEGEyIy
obHB0fBC4RQjUmLxM3KCkrIVQ//

http://0.tqn.com/d/shoes/1/0/o/K/1/alexander_mcqueen_fashion_show_shoes.jpg

Thanks
Thomas Wendt
Surrounding Signiﬁers
@thomas_wendt
thomas@srsg.co
srsg.co

UX as Knowledge Work

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