Wu Wei (無為) and the Digital Interface: Daoist Principles in User Experience Design

Abstract

This paper will examine the significance of relating the principle of Daoist  wu wei  (wu2 wei2 無為) to the practice of user experience design. This is no mere pairing. Out of the  Daodejing and the Zhuangzi I will draw two different uses of wu wei which have often been confused together: Laozi's wu wei of noncoercive governance and Zhuangzi's wu wei of non-struggling technique. Both of them speak to concerns that apply to interface design. The first part of the paper will set out the philosophical foundations of what I will refer to as "Daoist UX," a set of practices which depend on three correspondences. First, ziran (zi4ran2 自然) – natural spontaneity, the way things are   as the standard for determining intuitive interfaces. Second,  xu (xu1 虛), emptiness as a positive state  as the underpinning of negative space and cognitive breathing room. And finally, the very principle of  wu wei that good design is invisible design. I will argue that UX, having stumbled upon such principles empirically, lacks the philosophic sophistication to explain the reasoning behind them. The Daoists did so two thousand years ago.