My Dive with Jacques Cousteau: Advice to a Designer

It was in the spring of 1997 that I had the honor to dive with Jacques Cousteau. After three years of promises that he would join one of our test dives to Catalina Island, we received confirmation that Cousteau would dive with our team.
For a scuba diver, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. For a designer, this was an opportunity to meet the man that had invented the sport of scuba.
Although Cousteau had founded U.S. Divers, by 1997 he was no longer taking part in its day to day business. He did however still take part in many diving related activities with the company. Among these was the occasional dive with the U.S. Divers test dive team.

On this spring day, we set off from our usual port in Huntington Beach, California. U.S Divers always chartered a small dive boat for its test dives, and this dive was no different.
Joining us on the dive along with Captain Cousteau (at U.S. Divers, we always referred to him as "The Captain"), were his son Jean-Micheal along with Dominique Sumian. Sumian had sailed with the Calypso, and had recently become a member of the U.S. Divers sales team.

By the time we dropped anchor at Ship Rock, we had already donned our wet suits, prepped our regulators, and were preparing for our first dive. Cousteau still dove with a double hose Aqua-Lung, with the second stage mounted on the chest (as opposed to a tank mount). He still held his original invention close to his heart. We spent the next 2 hours diving Ship Rock, then moved on to Bird Rock some distance away.
It was on the return trip to Huntington Beach, that I had the chance to talk with The Captain. The boat trip back from any day dive is always a time to reflect and talk about the day's diving. You are tired, and still in of awe of what you have just seen and experienced.
I asked Cousteau what he thought of the gear we were testing that day, and what he thought about the future of diving gear. He thought for a few moments and pointed to the ocean.
"You see the ocean?" he said, with his French accent. "Diving equipment should reflect the design of the sea's creatures, smooth and purposeful. And it should enable man to swim like the fishes with as little effort as possible."

In those few words, he summarized the essence of scuba design, and in part of industrial design as well.
Jacques Cousteau died later that year, but his design advice is still with me. I suppose I could say, there's a little bit of Jacques Cousteau in everything I design.

Designer Immersion: The Advantages of Designer as User

Industrial design methodology has always dictated that industrial designer's "get to know" or "understand" their users. The premise is that the better the industrial designer understands the user's wants, needs, desires, and behaviors, the better the product design will reflect these attributes and meet (or exceed) the user's expectations.

This statement is of course true, but traditional methods of "getting to know" and "understanding" the user can be limiting, and may result in incomplete or slanted user information. Examples of these methods include user observation, user testing, user scenario analysis (including knowledge of where, when, and how the product will be used).

What is limiting or missing from these traditional methods? It is the desirable ability to "get inside the head" of the user. Traditional methods work primarily from the "outside" or by means of observation. While the results of observation are vital, they are only part of the picture. But how can industrial designer's truly "get inside the head" of the user?

The only way for a designer to "get inside the head" of a user, is to become a user. Only by thinking and acting as users themselves, can designers complete their understanding of the user's wants, needs, desires, and behaviors.

I've coined the phrase "Designer Immersion" to describe this process. Designer Immersion implies that the designer completely immerses themselves into the role of the user. Designer and user essentially become one.

What are the advantages of using Designer Immersion compared with the use of traditional user observational methods alone?

First, industrial designers can verify (or refute) from first hand experience, any or all of the user observational information gathered. Designer Immersion is therefore a key verification tool.

Second, through first hand experience, designers can make subtle observations in: product behavior, environmental conditions, user tasking, or product fit that can drive design, and would otherwise be missed.

Third, Designer Immersion can help designers develop a higher level of user "empathy" that can heighten their concern for the well being and success of the end user. By experiencing product use, as well as product risk and consequence of misuse first hand, designers are in a unique position to support design concerns that include appearance, comfort, fit, tasking, and safety.

And when you really think about it, as a customer would you want to use a product that was not designed by a user of that product? Would you want to dive with dive equipment not designed by a diver? Would you wear a respiratory mask that was not designed by a mask user? Would you want to use a medical device not designed by someone intimately involved in the first hand use of that device?

As users and customers have come to expect this relationship between their products and the designers of their products, Designer Immersion can effectively be described as an essential and necessary user requirement.