A UX designer is nothing if not a perpetual student. We have to constantly learn our way around new problems, new sets of users, new software, and new user feedback. In order to be a true perpetual student, we all have to have one thing in common: epistemic humility.
What does that mean? I’d be hard-pressed to put it better than Colin Wright it in his blog post, “The word “epistemic” means, essentially, anything dealing with knowledge.
Epistemic humility, then, is being humble with your assumptions about understanding.”
You have to be humble and honest about not only what you know, but how you know it, (or think you know it).
As Socrates so succinctly put it “I know that I know nothing”. I don’t mean to imply that we need to take things this far. But the attitude of the Socratic paradox is something I believe we should carry with us. A deep acknowledgment of our ignorance and a constant willingness to forgo our own assumptions and methods of learning in order to be open always to new knowledge, new ways of gaining knowledge, and viewpoints.
It’s not necessarily an easy feat to set aside one’s fundamental assumptions, methods of processing new information, and worldviews in order to address user needs where they’re truly at. It takes a great deal of self-awareness and willingness to reside in the discomfort that comes when we question our own set of knowledge. Epistemic humility, is, however, a well-worthwhile if not crucial trait to nurture within ourselves as UX designers.
So, next time you’re in the midst of solving a UX problem, take time to reflect on the assumptions and set of knowledge you’re approaching your project with. Be starkly honest with yourself. Be willing to resist the need to hold tightly on to your first set of solutions or ideas. Keep yourself open and accepting to the fact that your worldview and experience are just that. Yours, and you don’t and can’t know everything. That thought shouldn’t isn’t a discouraging one, it is a freeing one.
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