Process Overview
Undermine_Through_Design
This project is initiated based on observations from me and other people in the design/technology community. Products and services are optimised for efficiency and standardisation caring more for profit than privacy (Two Million Years in Two Hours: A Conversation with Yuval Noah Harari, 2021).
We, humans, are becoming the product to be consumed by our technologies. However I believe that good interaction design can also be the remedy to this issue created by it. Celebrating fluidity, creating interactions that trigger reflection and empower users. Designing things away and creating hacks.
This initiated the research question of this thesis: How do we design interactions that empower people in their engagements with the digital so a balanced relation can be formed?
This thesis is approaching this issue through a process I call co-reflection through disruptive design. This is a hands on design methode that use experiments as contextualisations of the reflections done by the designer. The experiments are shared with people in order to reflect upon as well. The returning reflections are used to continue the project and often lead to a reframing of it. The big fluctuating issue being targeted in this project called for a process inline with this nature. Throughout this process three design principles and three design handles are initiated.
This project is finalised with a last experiment Huddle. This is a nomad server where the digital design manifesto is kept and collectively written. The proposed design principles and handles are a small stab at the bigger issue. Looking at the fluidity of the process and the community involvement I chose to not deliver a final solution but another experiment that is in flux. Through reading, signing and contribution on the website the manifesto is crafted. So this thesis report is a finalisation of the Undermine_Through_design thesis but the start of the live of _Huddle.