Recently I was showing a usability issue of the institutional kind to a friend, and mentioned I had learned so much about human-centered design from taking Richard I. Anderson’s class, oh some 30 years ago maybe? So I wanted to check on Richard and stumbled upon the announcement of his passing and a memorial at BayCHI, an organization he gave so much of his time and energy.

I retired early, and learned about Richard’s sickness and times of homelessness, contributed to “Friends of Richard,” and I think last time I met him at a cafe in Berkeley he was going to shelter at a friend’s house (I learned at the memorial it did happen). There was no reason for me to not believe his story and discovery of the sickness he had been afflicted with, but I was so sorry that he had relied on friends who sent him on a spiraling downfall by having him committed to a mental ward.

I read his now deleted blog telling how after he had recovered (thanks to having a place to call home provided by the same friend who organized the memorial) how he remained a defender of the homeless, faithful to an annual trip to a St-Vincent-de-Paul dinner (and humbling me for my prejudice against the Catholic Church: that the people doing charity work may be Catholic, but they’re not the decision makers who preach voting for Trump and fascism). He also brought up that while teaching in Austin, his students needed a reminder that the homeless weren’t homeless by choice, and rather were the victims of a society in which we’re like trapeze artists who have to work without a safety net. Some of us make it, sometimes even get the easiest gig closer to the floor, but there’s always a risk to trip on something. And then there’s finger pointing at the fallen that it was their fault, something they did to get to this point.

So today I stopped at the homeless man who drives me crazy because he calls me Sir even when I’m obviously in a skirt, and I gave him money and acknowledgment. Someone like Richard would probably want to know his story. Maybe I should too, in order to make my world a bit more human-centric, because my excuse is that I donate larger amounts to the system… That was the one thing I got from Richard’s class, that we had to talk to and observe users and potential users of our systems in order to serve them better.

The thing about Richard and his way of interviewing people and moderating panels was that he never lectured us or anyone. To me he’s an unsung hero who propped up others to make the world a better place. I’m not forgetting him and his questions…

https://riander.blogspot.com/