{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122887"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122887","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Whole human design : designing for Humans, not Users","abstract":"In the past ten years, the Human-Centered Design methodology has exploded--permeating our organizational and academic worlds and becoming one of the most sought-after skills. The user-first mantra has become widely accepted and internalized. Develop empathy! Find users in their natural habitat! Design for their needs, not yours! Despite its vast popularity, I believe there is a great flaw and irony in the way we practice Human-Centered Design today: without the human. Though a human perceives his/her life as a dynamic whole (Gestalt Theory), we reduce him/her to a 'user', a shard of his/her full Self. This thesis explores the foundations of a new methodology, Whole Human Design[superscript TM], that seeks to re-unify the human and equip us to design for users in the context of their whole humanness. To that end, this thesis first seeks a usable definition of the Human and our human needs, by exploring a wide range of philosophical and psychological perspectives-from material/atomistic definitions (like those found in Behaviorism) to Phenomenology-inspired definitions (Existentialism, Humanistic Psychology, Positive Psychology) to Religious perspectives. From there, based on an ethnographic research with 50 individuals, this thesis introduces a design framework, the Periodic Table of Human Elements[superscript TM], a tool to connect functional and latent needs of a user to his/her deeper human roots. Finally, in order to illustrate how this methodology can be practiced, this thesis presents a case study of how Whole Human Design was used to solve a $300B real-world problem, medication adherence.","abstract_html":"In the past ten years, the Human-Centered Design methodology has exploded--permeating our organizational and academic worlds and becoming one of the most sought-after skills. The user-first mantra has become widely accepted and internalized. Develop empathy! Find users in their natural habitat! Design for their needs, not yours! Despite its vast popularity, I believe there is a great flaw and irony in the way we practice Human-Centered Design today: without the human. Though a human perceives his/her life as a dynamic whole (Gestalt Theory), we reduce him/her to a 'user', a shard of his/her full Self. This thesis explores the foundations of a new methodology, Whole Human Design[superscript TM], that seeks to re-unify the human and equip us to design for users in the context of their whole humanness. To that end, this thesis first seeks a usable definition of the Human and our human needs, by exploring a wide range of philosophical and psychological perspectives-from material/atomistic definitions (like those found in Behaviorism) to Phenomenology-inspired definitions (Existentialism, Humanistic Psychology, Positive Psychology) to Religious perspectives. From there, based on an ethnographic research with 50 individuals, this thesis introduces a design framework, the Periodic Table of Human Elements[superscript TM], a tool to connect functional and latent needs of a user to his/her deeper human roots. Finally, in order to illustrate how this methodology can be practiced, this thesis presents a case study of how Whole Human Design was used to solve a $300B real-world problem, medication adherence.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Klein, Alex C.(Alex Charles)"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":"Master","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Maria Yang."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018","date_published":"2018","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:02Z","subjects":["Engineering and Management Program.","System Design and Management Program."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."],"rights_urls":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122887","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Maria Yang."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program","SysDes","System Design and Management Program"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.other","label":"Dc Contributor Other","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program.","System Design and Management Program."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Klein, Alex C.(Alex Charles)"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2019-11-12T17:41:48Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-11-12T17:41:48Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2018"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Engineering and Management Program.","System Design and Management Program."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122887"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 134-136)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In the past ten years, the Human-Centered Design methodology has exploded--permeating our organizational and academic worlds and becoming one of the most sought-after skills. The user-first mantra has become widely accepted and internalized. Develop empathy! Find users in their natural habitat! Design for their needs, not yours! Despite its vast popularity, I believe there is a great flaw and irony in the way we practice Human-Centered Design today: without the human. Though a human perceives his/her life as a dynamic whole (Gestalt Theory), we reduce him/her to a 'user', a shard of his/her full Self. This thesis explores the foundations of a new methodology, Whole Human Design[superscript TM], that seeks to re-unify the human and equip us to design for users in the context of their whole humanness. To that end, this thesis first seeks a usable definition of the Human and our human needs, by exploring a wide range of philosophical and psychological perspectives-from material/atomistic definitions (like those found in Behaviorism) to Phenomenology-inspired definitions (Existentialism, Humanistic Psychology, Positive Psychology) to Religious perspectives. From there, based on an ethnographic research with 50 individuals, this thesis introduces a design framework, the Periodic Table of Human Elements[superscript TM], a tool to connect functional and latent needs of a user to his/her deeper human roots. Finally, in order to illustrate how this methodology can be practiced, this thesis presents a case study of how Whole Human Design was used to solve a $300B real-world problem, medication adherence."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["S.M. in Engineering and Management"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Whole human design : designing for Humans, not Users"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Maria Yang."],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program","SysDes","System Design and Management Program"],"dc:contributor.other":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program.","System Design and Management Program."],"dc:creator":["Klein, Alex C.(Alex Charles)"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2019-11-12T17:41:48Z"],"dc:date.available":["2019-11-12T17:41:48Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2018"],"dc:description":["Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 134-136)."],"dc:description.abstract":["In the past ten years, the Human-Centered Design methodology has exploded--permeating our organizational and academic worlds and becoming one of the most sought-after skills. The user-first mantra has become widely accepted and internalized. Develop empathy! Find users in their natural habitat! Design for their needs, not yours! Despite its vast popularity, I believe there is a great flaw and irony in the way we practice Human-Centered Design today: without the human. Though a human perceives his/her life as a dynamic whole (Gestalt Theory), we reduce him/her to a 'user', a shard of his/her full Self. This thesis explores the foundations of a new methodology, Whole Human Design[superscript TM], that seeks to re-unify the human and equip us to design for users in the context of their whole humanness. To that end, this thesis first seeks a usable definition of the Human and our human needs, by exploring a wide range of philosophical and psychological perspectives-from material/atomistic definitions (like those found in Behaviorism) to Phenomenology-inspired definitions (Existentialism, Humanistic Psychology, Positive Psychology) to Religious perspectives. From there, based on an ethnographic research with 50 individuals, this thesis introduces a design framework, the Periodic Table of Human Elements[superscript TM], a tool to connect functional and latent needs of a user to his/her deeper human roots. Finally, in order to illustrate how this methodology can be practiced, this thesis presents a case study of how Whole Human Design was used to solve a $300B real-world problem, medication adherence."],"dc:description.degree":["S.M. in Engineering and Management"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122887"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."],"dc:rights.uri":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"dc:subject":["Engineering and Management Program.","System Design and Management Program."],"dc:title":["Whole human design : designing for Humans, not Users"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:02Z"}