“The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.” Walter Benjamin.
In the late summer of 2016, I found myself on a small hill near Portbou, on the border between France and Spain. I was off the path and exposed to the wind. The hill was covered in spiky plants, the barbs of which scratched my ankles. I was photographing a patch of ground that looked as though someone had hollowed it out, a long time ago, perhaps to provide some sort of shelter. In my memory, the hollow had a view of the sea but I might be misremembering because I was so happy to have found it. The hollow where the philosopher and social theorist Walter Benjamin spent his last night on earth.
Benjamin slept in this hollow in late September 1940. As an Austrian Jew who had been living in now-occupied Paris, he and a group of friends and colleagues had left Paris on foot. Benjamin was only 48, but he wasn’t in great shape and the journey had taken its toll on him. Almost all of the space in his suitcase was taken up by the notes that comprised his unfinished ‘Arcades Project’. It was arguably the first attempt by a major thinker to engage with the new commercial spaces, and the idea of ‘shopping as leisure’ which the shopping arcades facilitated.
Benjamin began the Arcades Project in the late 1920s. He wanted to explore the cultural and social significance of the 19th-century arcades in Paris. These were covered passageways with shops and other commercial spaces, perhaps the first places designed to inculcate the idea of shopping as leisure activity. The idea took off, and although many of the arcades that sprang up around the world were lost to the march of progress, examples still exist. One of the most famous is London’s Covent Garden, but another is in Manchester, the Royal Exchange arcade.
Benjamin intended to create a comprehensive collection of notes, quotations, and reflections on various aspects of modernity, urban life, consumer culture, and the impact of technology. The project remains famous for its innovative approach to capturing the essence of the city and its people through fragmented observations and insights.
This likely makes Benjamin the first to make serious study of the customer experience. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, Benjamin engaged with visual material like photographs, postcards, and illustrations to explore the visual culture of his time. He examined how images conveyed social and cultural values and how they influenced the perception of historical events. Benjamin conducted historical research to understand the broader historical context of the 19th century. He examined economic developments, technological advancements, social changes, and political events that shaped the environment he was studying. He took notes, quotations, images, and descriptions, from diverse sources including literature, philosophy, advertisements, and historical documents. And of course, he was present on the scene as an anonymous researcher, for an immersive observation of urban spaces, streets, and arcades. He detailed interactions, behaviours, and routines of people in their natural environment to capture the essence of everyday life.
One of his key concepts was that of the ‘dialectical image’. Benjamin hoped to juxtapose fragments of historical experience in their context to come to an understanding of how the tensions between different experiences sent tremors that directed the course of human progress. Examples could be the movie Russian Ark, which traces Russian history through the art in the Hermitage Museum, shot in a single uninterrupted shot to track the passing of chronological time, the evolution of turbo-folk music, and the Apple iPod.
So the dialectical image is about everyday experience, as it is subconsciously shaped by associations, context, history, and also the special aesthetic experience this process engenders. It’s also about the connections and differences between these two types of experiences (the everyday and the aesthetic), and most importantly how they are shaped by capitalism.
By taking two disparate objects and conducting a comparative analysis, Benjamin revealed contradictions, patterns, and shifts within the historical and cultural contexts he was examining.
Benjamin’s unfinished project was largely ignored in the immediate aftermath of WW2 (ahem, rationing…) but influenced and was reinterpreted by Adorno, Baudrillard, Foucault and others.
Today his influence on UX (and CX) is often underappreciated, but he was a pioneer in a number of ways, especially in the field of User-Centred Design (UCD).
Empathy for users
Benjamin’s emphasis on empathy and understanding different perspectives aligns with UCD’s focus on empathising with users. Both approaches encourage designers to put themselves in the users’ shoes, and consider their needs, goals, and emotions.
User research
Benjamin’s approach involved close observation of historical and cultural contexts and applying them to user behaviour to gather rich insights into what factors inform successful design decisions and create experiences that resonate with users.
Complex user experiences
Benjamin’s concept of the dialectical image acknowledges the complexity of historical experiences. This led to the conclusion that users have diverse backgrounds, contexts, and preferences, leading to complex user experiences. He advocated for acknowledging and addressing this complexity.
Non-linear narratives
Benjamin’s critique of linear historical narratives resonates. Today we recognise that user interactions are not always linear. When we design for various user paths and non-linear interactions, we ensure that the user journey is intuitive and meaningful.
Diverse perspectives
Benjamin’s idea of capturing multiple perspectives aligns with today’s UCD commitment to designing for diverse users. Both approaches emphasise inclusivity, acknowledging that different users may have different ways of engaging with content or interfaces.
Transformative potential
Benjamin believed that by understanding historical experiences in the context of their meaning, we might better understand history and how culture influences individual desires and experience. UCD likewise puts a focus on understanding the user, and this today is considered the baseline for creating online experiences that resonate.
In essence, UCD principles are built on the same foundation of empathy, understanding, and a desire to create meaningful experiences that formed the basis of Benjamin’s purpose with the Arcades Project. While largely forgotten in the field of design, Benjamin’s historical and philosophical perspective complements UCD’s practical and human-centered approach. Perhaps a memetic resurrection of Benjamins’s ideas could help us create designs that are not only functional but also resonate with users on a deeper level.
Benjamin never made it into Spain. On September 26 1940, his visa to cross from France into Spain was rejected by the Spanish authorities. Due to be transported back to Paris, he chose to take his own life, an action which shocked the men guarding the border so much that all his colleagues and friends were ushered through. His Arcades Project made it too.
If he has been underappreciated as a UX pioneer to date, there’s no reason why this must remain the case. Anyhow, his obscurity likely wouldn’t have surprised him. He often repeated this quote, which he attributed to Hegel:
“Only when it is dark does the owl of Minerva begin its flight.”
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