Transcendent Experience (ZX) broadens the focus of UX design from the individual, momentary needs of a task, to the warm and meaningful contexts of belonging.
“When we achieve self transcendence we experience connection with significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos.”
– Abraham Maslow
Too often, the human in human-centered design is just one user, just one time. But in order to thrive, people need to experience the interconnectedness between themselves and the world around them.
ZX is named after Abraham Maslow’s Theory Z about transcending our own needs, hang-ups, and inward focus and attending to the people and the world around us. Maslow described this as the “pinnacle of human experience.”
Yet, the modern discipline of User Experience Design doesn’t prioritize interconnectivity. As a result, the built environments we inhabit today grow cold.
UX Design
UX design commonly prioritizes one user in one moment:
up and downstream impact hidden
blind to source, gratitude, reciprocation
critical human relationships ignored
ZX Design
Through the lens of ZX we prioritize interconnectedness
transparency to source and impact
supports gratitude and reciprocation
engages individual purpose within a shared cause
Key Principles of ZX
To warm human experience ZX seeks to nest each task in the context of a person’s unique potential to serve something bigger than themselves.
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
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
Belonging
Through a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself, the user may realize both gratitude and reciprocation.
“Self actualizing people are – without one exception – involved in a cause outside their own skin.”
– Abraham Maslow
Daniel Gloyd
I’m a designer and research expert specializing in the fields of Human-computer Interaction and User Experience design. I’ve helped organizations such as Toyota, Samsung, and McDonald's embrace human-centered design for over 25 years.
Lately, like many of my clients and colleagues, I’ve felt something missing from the strategic priorities of design. During research for my book about Shaker design I discovered what that might be.
I’m developing ZX as a new perspective on User Experience (UX). When the two terms are compared, some shortcomings of the latter are self-evident; the tools and methods of Human-centered Design must be applied to connecting the user to the world outside their own skin as opposed to the isolating service of their individual and ephemeral needs alone.
About
Origin of ZX
The key principles of ZX were discovered within the carefully and intentionally-crafted user experience of the Shakers. The prevailing characteristic of that experience, which can be felt even today when visiting one of the remaining Shaker Villages, is warmth.
Shaker-made objects embody a spirit of ingenious service to the people who used them as well as to the communities in which they were used. This spirit strengthened and gave meaning to the relationship between the user and the built world around them.
ZX is dedicated with respect to the radically human-centered design of the Shakers as evidence of it’s enduring importance.
ZX Workshop May, 2025
Join us at Esalen in Big Sur, CA!
Our first independent ZX event will be at Esalen, a stunning, radical, and inspirational backdrop for learning about and developing a new design philosophy.
May 2025
“Designing for Warmth: Creating Transcendent User Experiences” at Esalen, Big Sur, CA
April 2026
ZX26 will bring together experts in Design and Shaker culture at the stunning Hancock Shaker Village.
CalArts, May 2025
Lecture on Designing Warmth at California Institute of the Arts, San Francisco, CA. w/Hugh Dubberly
Rosenfeld Media, February 2025
Lecture on Designing Warmth for Rosenfeld Community, Rosenfeld Media, w/ Louis Rosenfeld
Parsons School of Design, March 2024
Lecture at Prototyping Utopia Residency, Parsons School of Design, w/ Killeen Hanson
SCAD, May 2024