Perhaps one of the most powerful tools in human inquiry today, the four quadrants offer a concrete and easy-to-use framework. The four-quadrant model brings light to the importance of keeping in mind all aspects of a situation when trying to change or create something.

The four quadrants demonstrate how the world naturally divides into four parts. Everything has inner and outer, individual and collective aspects. What’s more, areas that are traditionally held to be in conflict, such as science and religion, are revealed to be simply different quadrant approaches to the same base phenomenon. Just because meditation, for example, includes changes in brain activity (upper right) does not mean the subjective experience of the person meditating (upper left) is meaningless.

The quadrants are invaluable when trying to ensure the success and quality of a product or service. Let’s briefly look at how Matrix Integral uses the four quadrants when creating Integral web solutions.

First of all, we need a clear purpose of the website: what needs could it fulfill? In this case, let’s say a company wants to primarily sell a product. With this essential information to guide us, we can use the four quadrants to investigate how to best serve this purpose.

The right hand quadrants deal with the exterior nature of things. In this case, that means the technical aspects of the website and the fit between the virtual presentation of the product and the actual physical product. Through the upper right quadrant (behavior), we investigate common navigation behavior of Internet surfers and check if each page and module appears and operates as it should. With a lower right approach (functional fit), we secure that all pieces fit together and that the ‘whole’ system works well technically and is easy to navigate.

The left hand quadrants focus on interiors. Through the upper left (intentional), we acknowledge that this website is built for human visitors with interior thoughts and feelings; therefore we make sure that the structure and design of the site is appealing to the visitor and clearly communicates how and why to buy the specific product (in this case, our main goal is to sell). The lower left quadrant (cultural) helps us remember that each visitor has a cultural background with certain values and assumptions. Appropriate lower left questions would be "who is our target audience?" and "what reactions should we expect from our group of visitors?"

In most cases when constructing a website, the left hand quadrants are completely overlooked. This means that there’s no conscious approach on how to communicate with other interiors; instead it’s assumed that what what’s obvious to the developer’s eye is equally obvious to the inexperienced visitor.

If you think about it, you will notice, almost automatically, that all of these approaches to web design are partial. Focusing on just one quadrant will leave a lot of the picture out. For example, an upper left approach may reveal that people feel wonderful when visiting this website, but leave unrevealed that the ordering system isn’t functioning properly. On the other hand, focusing only on the right may secure a wonderfully well-functioning technical system, but exclude the fact that the ugly design repels visitors.

Only by using all four quadrants at the same time can we have a more complete understanding of any given problem or situation. However, an approach that favors one quadrant is not necessarily weak, as long as it acknowledges where it is situated, instead of claiming it has the one and only key to truth.

Write to web@matrixintegral.org to get a proposal, or read more about Matrix Integral web solutions.

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