Chapter2 TheProblemsofDesign Abstract HCI design is difficult, partly because of the dichotomy between the concerns of people and the directives provided by newly available technologies. There is a tension between what the devices and systems can do (objectivity), and howweexperienceusingthemandlivingwiththem(subjectively).Adesignerneeds to knowbothwhatistechnicallypossible, and howwe think and act when our lives are mediated by technology. This chapter discusses a range of problems with the way design has been understood and is conducted. We see design as having the responsibility to ensure that people can fulfil themselves and act out their intentions in the worldofthings(includingoftechnology).Weraiseseveralissuessurrounding so-called human-centred design as a response to this concern, issues that we see as caused by three false dichotomies: (i) the ‘cognition-action dichotomy’, (ii) the ‘human-user dichotomy’, and (iii) the ‘virtual-physical dichotomy’. The chapter also reframes the categorization of customers, users, persons and humans, allowing us to focus on new aspects of people as humans in design work. Introduction All HCI design is difficult, partly because of the dichotomy between the concerns of people and the directives provided by newly available technologies. There is a tension between what the devices and systems can do (objectivity), and how we experience using them and living with them (subjectively). Design as a discipline has been influenced by the basically mechanistic and dualistic worldview of the scientific tradition, by being seen as apart from this. From a Cartesian perspective, design in general is interpreted primarily as a way to create decoration to adorn the outer surface of things, to producing transitory ‘feelings’ without involving logical thinking. By this view, designing is seen as an activity drawing on with subjective sense experiences and imagination. But if design is about touching people’s heartstrings, it comes into being by way of a process that interweaves this sensitivity with the logic of properties of material and colours (which are subjective phenomena),functionalities and usability (which ©Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 13 J. Waterworth, K. Hoshi, Human-Experiential Design of Presence in Everyday Blended Reality, Human–Computer Interaction Series, DOI10.1007/978-3-319-30334-5_2