Maybe you have heard of the the parable of the blind men and an elephant?

This is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before. They learn and conceptualise what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant’s body, but only one part.They then describe the elephant based on their limited experience.

The man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar. The one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope. The one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch. The one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan. The one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall. And the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.

They all come to suspect that the other person is dishonest and they come to blows. The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective experience as they ignore other people’s limited, subjective experiences which may be equally true.

The parable of the elephant reminds me of the different view of design that people of different backgrounds, education, and experience have. A web designer approaches UX design from one point of view, the programmer from another, and the product owner from yet another. It is definitely helpful to understand and even experience the part of the elephant that others are experiencing. At the end of the day, a great UX design come from great collaboration.

So, what’s your description of an elephant?