Performativity in sustainable interaction
Maria Normark, Jakob Tholander · 2014
The EcoFriends application was developed as an attempt to support grocery shopping adjusted to vegetables? seasonality through a performative approach to interaction and interactive applications. The design aimed at critical reflection and inspiration among users, rather than achieving a certain kind of persuasion. This guided the practical design to be modelled around open-endedness and social voices to challenge ideas and points of view. We argue that research addressing design for interactions about value-laden concepts such as sustainable action need to find ways of supporting various knowledge discourses, by distinguishing between performative and representational technologies. The approach allowed us to identify a number of design challenges regarding interactive technology and interaction design in relation to aspects of knowledge and truth, trust, negotiation and responsibility.