Humane

Hu-mane adj.

1. Characterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion: a humane judge.
2. Marked by an emphasis on humanistic values and concerns: a humane education.
3. Having the feelings and inclinations creditable to man; having a disposition to treat other human beings or animals with kindness; kind; benevolent

What do we mean by humane?

Humane systems, spaces and interfaces are those which place people and their related living entities at the centre of a design approach, and use the principle of the hippocratic oath "first do no harm", and the precautionary principle. There are many examples in the world around us of poor design, or design that has been driven with little consideration of the range of influencing factors affecting people. For a better indication of what we mean by poor design, we suggest you check out our resources for a range of links to examples of what we mean.

Our origins in Occupational Rehabilitation saw us working with organisations to deal with injuries arising from many causes. These included:

• Workspace design. The workspaces people use are enormously varied, and based on the demands of the tasks you do in your daily job. If the workspace is not designed around your range of work tasks, or is being used in ways that it was not designed for, the risk of injury rises.
• Workforce systems. This included approaches used to manage human capital within organisations, with notable mention of training approaches, roster and shiftwork systems, working hours, workload management, job descriptions and business process design.
• Systems design. Whilst systems are useful in providing replicable processes and consistent approaches, in many organisations the need for several systems starts to introduce complexity, and systems of systems begin to arise. Failing to use a systems integration, or enterprise architecture approach leads to conflicting system overlaps, and replication of information or work processes across system boundaries, leading to confusion, stress and misinformation. Interventions needed in this space are to focus on system integration and opportunities for simplification.
• Organisational design. Organisations of today are increasingly stretched beyond their previously established boundaries as the online economy blurs the lines across supply and value chains- this disruption can have chaotic impacts on staff retention and being able to locate organisational expertise when it's needed.

Humane design in practice

Workplace injuries are often symptomatic of deeper issues than immediate workspace design, and usually have multiple layers of causation. Performing root cause analyses will often identify multiple layers of influencing elements that eventually contribute to safety or injury incidents. They are often very good organisational symptoms of deeper issues, and an ideal entry point for considering what redesign might be necessary within an organisation, and where it may be required. Laughing Mind regard incidents as symptoms of deeper organisational issues, and an opportunity to deal with the fundamental issues that lead to unsatisfactory and unsafe workplaces.

More information on Humane practices in ICT

• Top 100 User Centred blogs: A top 100 list of blogs focused on  Accessibility, HCI, Web Standards, User Experience, User Centered Design, User Centered writing and content

Inspiring real world examples of Humane thinking

• David Schmaltz at Project Community and his business partner, Amy Schwab

Resources

• Our Engage page lists a range of useful materials for engaging with people for enhancing your online initiative and providing useful insight into the operations and strategy potential for your organisation.