BTL

Interaction design is a vast and multidisciplinary field that has grown in complexity and relevance, driven by the pervasiveness of computational media and tools. A central paradigm in its research, teaching, and practice is human-centred design (HCD), a framework of methods structured around usability. Human-centred design focuses on the characteristics of the users of the medium or tool being designed, their needs and wants, contexts of usage, and their tasks and workflows. This leads to metrics for testing and design methods that always involve users. Consequently, HCD promotes user-friendliness, facilitation of workflows, user comfort, and the mental state of flow. It is concerned with learning processes and cognitive stresses, trying to develop products that accommodate users and are ready-to-hand. The success of current HCD philosophies and their role in shaping the current media landscape is undeniable, but it is not without downsides.

The application of HCD methods can result in media and tools that are conducive to hedonistic loops — the optimisation and normalisation of what is already known and familiar to users. It may also lead to an overuse of gamification strategies and to dark patterns that exploit the potential for persuasiveness of computational media. These may result in diminished critical thinking and metacognition in users. Mistaking usability with effortlessness can lead to negative impacts on diversity and to increases in radicalisation, as well as to a dilution of the ergodic potential, impairing meaning creation, the development of creative processes, and increasing alienation, which is paradoxically opposed to one of flow theory’s main goals. Ultimately, these methods can result in incentives for shallow relationships with digital media and other humans, leading to unreflected interactions, convergent thinking and the creation of echo chambers.

Interaction design’s influence on most human activities is paramount. The way computational tools and media are designed increasingly impacts what we are able to create with and for them due to their affordances and how they expand human creativity.

Examples can be found in how generative artificial intelligence systems are brought to creative software and how algorithms mediate interactions on social networks and digital media, with impacts on culture, politics, ecology, and a growing number of other fronts. This research intends to expand the methods available to HCD and to develop tools for countering these shortcomings.

This project intends to bring contributions from other disciplines, chiefly game design, to interaction design. Game design often suffers from excessive facilitation and the commodification of flow”, but it is a field where these negative effects have a far more direct impact on the quality of products. As such, there is a growing body of research focused on inconvenient play, transgressive and no-fun games, abusive game design, and other strategies to induce friction in games and to lead to increases in meaningfulness and the quality of experience. Relevant bodies of research are also being developed in fields adjacent to interaction and game design, such as computational arts, electronic literature, or digital narrative.

This project’s main research question is: How can friction, inconvenience, and playful strategies stemming from game design be used in interaction design as inducers of meaning, reflectiveness and higher-order thinking by users? Secondary questions include: How can flow be constructively interrupted and moderated through the use of friction in the interaction with digital media? What are the purposes for breaking flow in digital media? What kinds of teaching and learning materials can be developed for these methods?

The project will provide an understanding of how friction, inconvenience and other playful strategies found in games can be used to promote meaning and reflectiveness in users. Furthermore, it will develop design tools, such as strategies, principles and patterns, that designers and other stakeholders can use to access this knowledge. These tools will be developed in pedagogical contexts and with the industry partners for whom they are directed. The results include an open-access book with the theory and models, a database of design patterns and resources for practitioners, educators, and learners, and interface actions with industry partners.

The core team is formed by researchers with vast experience in interaction, game, and computational design, developed over several years in research and teaching as well as in professional practice. The team is part of international networks of research and has strong ties with national and international practitioners in the industry.

Palavras-chave: Interaction Design; Game Design; User Experience; Design Education and Training.