Vision — Reflection.

How can we expect people to focus on what we make? How do we know where they WILL focus? How do we design for human probability?

Design has gone a long way to try to answer these questions. We have formed constitutive components of what makes a good design — the elements; the numerous tools we use to build our visions, and the principles; the rules and laws we follow in accordance with what we know looks pleasing to us. Yet, the one place where design starts delving into deeper human psychology is when we decide to investigate human factors. How can we design something that is guaranteed to be suitable for all our targets? Of course, all wise men know that there is no such thing as perfect- only the strive to be, but the question remains — How can you make a design universal when no human is universal and all unique?

More specifically — how do we know that the user will look at where we want them to look at? Of course, the (somewhat) go to answer would be “use a focal point” or “create emphasis”, but what happens when that fails? What happens when they simply do not look at where they are meant to — they do not want to be confined. The best, in my opinion, is to design for the worst and hope for the best.

In fact, this situation itself is a microcosm of all of designs improbability — we can attempt to maximize our impact and likeliness of success by factoring in human conditions. Yet, that fear of “what if my design isn’t good enough” or “what it doesn't work?” will always stay. Humans are possibly the most complex creation in this realm that we find ourselves in. There is ironically no human way to account for all of humanity’s possibilities. As always, our designs may end up falling or failing to chance — designed to succeed but destined to fail.