“Warmth is a connecting principle.”
– Pema Chödrön
“The harmful consequences of a lack of connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces, and organizations.”
– Vivek H. Murthy, M.D., U.S. Surgeon General
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“What I mean by good design is helping people find their natural, proper place in the cosmos.”
- Richard Buchanan
Just this one person, just this one time.
Too often that’s where design stops.
But in order to thrive, people need to experience interconnectedness; with other people, with nature, with the world outside their own skin.
Transcendent Experience (ZX) design looks beyond the individual and prioritizes the warm and meaningful contexts of belonging.
ZX Design Priorities
Vision of Warmth
Thinking of design as conversation – not problem solving – results in people who feel seen and heard both during the design process, and after, while using the final product or service.
Power of Warmth
Design as a scaffolding of support for Self Actualization – becoming one’s best self – can activate the power of an individual’s purpose, self worth, and natural tendencies for reciprocation.
Heart of Warmth
Design for connection to something bigger than oneself – a shared cause – helps people realize gratitude, experience attunement, and engages our sense of justice.
Truly human-centered design supports transcendence of self, prioritizing the connections that sustain our physical, emotional, and societal wellness.
Join us in the Berkshires this Fall!
Designing Warmth
Wed, September 28 - Sat, October 3
An intimate gathering of world-builders – people who plan human experience in digital or physical spaces – exploring the principles of designing warmth through conversation, immersion, and embodiment.
Background
“No role exists in isolation.”
– Fred Rogers
Can you think of someone with a warm personality who makes you feel seen, like you matter, like you belong?
This type of connection is prioritized by our biological brain and spiritual heart alike.
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Science, medicine, religion, the arts, and philosophy, all speak of this connection as being critical to human thriving. Cultures around the world know it by the same name; “warmth.”
ZX design focusses on building warmth into the built worlds we inhabit – both physical and digital.
Designing warm human experience engages human interconnectedness, kindling our natural human tendencies for justice, harmony, and reciprocation and optimizing our physical and emotional wellbeing.
Source and Inspiration
The Shakers exemplified both the principle and the courage to practice design in a manner that looked after the human experience of life on earth.
We’re gathering this Fall for ZX26 to explore Designing Warmth at one of the most important collections of Shaker material culture; the Hancock Shaker Village.
Daniel Gloyd, founder of Designing Warmth, is a design and research expert specializing in the field of Human Experience design.
Daniel’s interest in the principles of warmth as a designer have led him to study the scientific, philosophical, and spiritual perspectives of the phenomena. He lectures and gives workshops about Transcendent Experience (ZX) design, a new lens on UX which prioritizes interconnectedness as a design objective.
His forthcoming book “ZX” about Shaker design and the experience of warmth, shares his deep explorations in warming human experience through principles of connection..
Daniel has helped organizations such as Toyota, Samsung, and McDonald's embrace human-centered design for over 25 years.
He was founder of the User Interface team at Samsung’s LA Design Lab, and former principal V.P. of Design Research at Gist Design, acquired by TrueFit Innovation. He’s the inventor on five U.S. design patents for human-computer interface innovations.
Daniel Gloyd