In Shaker design we see the user’s task nested within the context of their unique potential to serve something bigger than themselves. In this way the tools, furniture, and architecture they created became a scaffolding for human connection.

Warmth is an essential principle of human connection, prioritized by the biological brain and spiritual heart alike. In order to thrive, we humans need to experience the interconnectedness between ourselves and the world around us. Yet despite the unprecedented connectivity today’s technology offers, the world is growing colder. Our daily interactions in the modern educational, commercial, and social frameworks focus on and prioritize the individual experience, and this connectivity is not the same as connection.

In all fields, user experience (UX) can be designed and warmed according to principles of interconnectedness, which support gratitude, compassion, and self-worth and can lead us toward reciprocation and justice. Drawing on Shaker material culture, Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-transcendence, and an array of inspired world-building such as the work of Fred Rogers, Transcendent User Experience (ZX) is a fresh perspective on UX design. This critique of traditional UX design urges a shift toward a human-centered approach that connects users to the world beyond their individual needs and to the broader social impacts of their consumer behavior.

Key principles we’re putting into practice:

1. Design for (and by) Conversation
To understand a task, respectful conversation between maker and user should be both the method and the result of design.

“The design process is a generative conversation having more in common with play and world-building than problem-solving.” - Hugh Dubberly

2. Design for Self-actualization
To actuate purpose, design should create a scaffolding of support that nudges the user toward becoming their best self so that they may better serve a shared cause.

“Every community practices the design of itself.”  – Arturo Escobar

3. Design for Belonging
A sense of belonging to something bigger than ourself helps us realize gratitude and activates our tendencies for reciprocation, harmony, and justice.

“Self actualizing people are – without one exception – involved in a cause outside their own skin.”   – Abraham Maslow