With the proliferation of emerging technologies like AI and biometrics, the question of how to design meaningful and humane experiences becomes more important than ever. For Yihyun Lim, assistant professor of interaction design at USC Iovine and Young Academy, the answer lies in focusing on innate human values that transcend time and space.

“The key word in developing humane technology or human experiences is ... values,” says Lim. “What are the human values that are core to us, and not just now, but in historic times too? Which human values have existed in the past that are also relevant now...[and] in the future?”

A design researcher, architect and educator who previously led the renowned MIT Design Lab (MDL), Lim’s research focuses on the “intersection of design thinking and futures thinking to create value-driven technologies of the future.” Her work includes prototyping a breathing sports shoe with micro-organisms to grow its own air passageways for customized ventilation; envisioning a futuristic aquarium experience in 2069; and conceptualizing a ‘caring city’ through an intelligent lighting system that delivers the affective values of caring, such as protection, acceptance, and community.

Lim’s work brings a new edge of cultural, historical and behavioral research to drive product innovation across industries, lifestyle sectors, even time. Speculating the future is an integral part of her design process, what she describes as “design fiction.”

“Through these design forecasting activities, I am interested in taking signals from current events, current trends, and past historic events, and then project the future of how we will move as a society… not just one, but many different futures,” Lim explains.

In present and future, it is clear that society has moved from simply adopting technology to experiencing technology as interwoven with human experience. To search for why people are drawn to a product or service, one must look beyond the metrics of optimization, efficiency, and on-demand accessibility to human values such as motivation, sensation, curiosity, and even companionship.

“As designers, technologists and innovators, I think we should be actively thinking about the value-experiences these products carry around the world, and how it influences the behavior and lives of people,” says Lim.

From Lim’s perspective, the rise and fall of technological innovations is not a pure artifact of chance or luck. The innovations that we connect to, that outlast the gimmicks, are inevitably the designs that seek to connect to us — and connect us to each other.

Academy assistant professor Yihyun Lim researches what design could look like in the future — and how to turn tech from unfeeling and impersonal to community-driven and supportive.

USC professor designs for the future