Hotzenplotz
Holger Klapperich, Marc Hassenzahl · 2016
Technology is able to free people from daily chores and to empower activities, which had not been possible before. At the same time, technology, especially automation, causes many mundane and potentially meaningful activities to disappear. In this sense, each convenient "enhancement" could also be understood as an experiential "amputation." This paper presents an exploration of an approach to automation, which seeks to reconcile the advantages of automation with meaningful experience. Hotzenplotz is an electrical coffee grinder combined with a functionally unnecessary manual interaction to create meaning. We empirically compared Hotzenplotz to an off-the-shelf manual and electrical grinder and found the resulting experience to be more fulfilling than the electric grinder and at least as fulfilling as the manual grinder, in terms of, for example, affective experience, meaning, and fulfillment of psychological needs. Hotzenplotz as a viable example of the subtle role an experience-oriented approach to the design of technology can play in shaping our everyday lives.