My husband, Todd Cook, and I are quite passionate about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ART and Math). We might be slightly biased due to our own backgrounds in engineering, programming, and the arts (both visual and performing.) However, we truly believe that art is a crucial part of the evolution of new technologies.There are many crossroads where technology and arts merge; one of those is product design. In the world of technical product design, 'good' means delivering a top notch User Experience (UX) for your product or service. UX is a specialty field that tries to get inside a user's head in order to help create a seamless experience - from the moment a user first sees the product to the last moment they use it. Does the product make sense? Does it feel natural to use? Does it perform as you expected? Does the look and feel of it delight you? A poor user experience design may get the job done, but the product is often frustrating and/or difficult to use. On the other hand, a product that is designed with the user in mind not only gets the job done, but performs in a way that is completely natural to the user.
Why care about art in a STEM-focused world?
Innovation today often means who can produce the fastest chip or provide the most efficient process, but what often gets lost is the way something looks and how it feels. It is a popular belief that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are the pillars on which we stand to innovate and solve technical problems. While this may be the case for getting something to work, we argue that ART is the pillar that moves many solutions from merely functioning well to being exceptional. Art and STEM should not oppose one another, but elevate each other.
The ability to introduce design principles and creativity into technical solutions propels products into the future and drives innovation and technological disruption. Artists capture and create elements that relate to humans and bridge the gap between technology and the human condition. Emerson Software Design Engineer, Ian Uy, explains,
“When an engineer, trained in the application of scientific and engineering rigor, can bring empathy to the creative process, the resulting outcome is a more relatable and more humane product. When humans use products that were created under the union of art and science; we feel more understood, better cared for and more empowered. In this modern world, making customers feel THAT WAY is the only path to market relevance.”
According to a research study founded in the Journal for Behaviour & Information Technology, first impressions are made in 50 milliseconds. This poses the question, that if two systems provide the same feature set - how do they distinguish themselves from the other? For something like a process facility system, the presence of operator usability and seamless integration differentiates great technology from good technology. The world is moving from who can provide a solution to who can provide the best user experience for each solution.
What separates the Apples and Googles from everyone else? It's the feel-good look and experience their products provide. Steve Jobs expressed, “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa, but to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” Products created with STEM skills AND an added design component have a better chance of relating with end users.
Usability is another key element in the creation of a product or service where design skills shine. If a product fulfills the problem it was created to solve, but is too difficult or unenjoyable to use, it will not be as successful. Another Design Engineer at Emerson, Andrew Kravitz, elucidates this quite well, “… people tend to think of STEM careers as those that focus primarily on numbers and optimization - where the only goal is to implement all of the requested features. However, that is often only half the battle. Designing something that simply performs the task is often the easiest part of the design process. It takes a lot more skill and expertise to make that same device intuitive for the user and aesthetically pleasing. Designing for the user experience often becomes a creative process. Ultimately it doesn’t matter how good your product is, if the user can’t figure out how to use it or they are unhappy with how it looks or feels - then the product has failed in its primary goal.”
Taking the corporate world out of the picture for a moment, schools with rigorous art programs very often produce student populations with higher test scores. Take a look at this report, Art Students Outperform Non-Arts Students on SAT, that shows the difference in average scores between students with one half year or less study in art and music and those with 4 years of study. Students with 4 years of study score 100 points higher in the combined reading and math scores than students with one half year or less! Art skills can elevate math and reading skills and are are best applied in conjunction with each other.
So, how can we better combine these elements?
A new focus must be placed on art and design. The discipline cannot replace STEM; rather, it must augment it. You don’t have to be able to draw or paint to be successful, but you can learn to apply design and artistic principles to create solutions that are easy-to-use and to implement.
The benefits of incorporating art and design into technical fields are clear - the more users enjoy your solution, the more they will want it and promote it. In fact, research shows that design-led companies have outperformed competitors by 228% over the last decade, and that UX-Led companies are becoming leaders in their field. To remain competitive and relevant, schools and employers should properly equip the incoming workforce for success by focusing on art and design as well as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Together, we can turn STEM into STEAM!