Vision

Our interactions with technology have become mindless and effortless. We live in a world where we are increasingly surrounded by computation. Whereas this was once reserved to the work environment, computation increasingly finds its way to our everyday lives (e.g. mobile phones and smart products). These computational devices mostly focus on our cognitive abilities and often provide access to the online world, with the fastness and ease of a finger touch; Resulting in effortless interactions, which are supposed to give us what we want fast and smoothly.

BBut is this type of interaction desirable for all our interactions with the digital world? What happened to the more focused, careful, and loving interactions which we sometimes have with devices, such as a record player? To me, it seems as if we have lost a certain fulfilment in our interactions. As described in the work “Easy doesn’t do it”, there is a need for interactions that account for mind, body, beauty, and enjoyment [1]. Especially for everyday tasks which contain emotion, such as cooking [2], it seems weird to not consider these elements. Therefore, I want to design interactions which focus on providing the user with this moment of fulfilment, by designing for mindful, tangible interactions.

In order to explore how to compose interactions which focus on beauty, enjoyment, and mindfulness, I want to design artefacts which make the digital world perceivable in other ways than just screens. I do this by 1) exploring interactions which emancipate the hand and allow us to interact with the device on a personal level, and 2) design artefacts which combine the richness of the physical world with the flexibility of the digital [3]. These hybrid artefacts aim to satisfy both mind and body, as such creating an intimate play between user and artefact.

As a designer researcher, I see it as my role to explore how we can design for these type of interactions and the areas of computation to which they can be applied.