It is a mistake to take ourselves as creators out of the process entirely, as is seeing the user as something external to us. Our own sense of self, if we are open, can represent our humanity. It is out of real passion that something human emerges, and we need to be able to have some trust in these expressions of self, that they bear relationship to other human experiences. One person is, of course, not normative enough to base the design of a product on, and so we must look at a problem from many sides. Slick products often represent the disconnection, or alienation from human experience.
Authenticity is gained through imagination and connection with the inner self.
Interview with Ken Hiebert by Angela Meyer, March 2001. Copyright 2001 School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University.