Negotiating Experiences and Design Directions through Object Theatre
Merja Ryöppy · 2020
The challenge of shaping human experiences with intelligent products has urged design researchers to move from a user-centred towards a thing-centred approach. By investigating use from the perspective of ‘digital things’, designers can better understand how objects influence human experience as part of socio-material systems. The research presented contributes with studying the role of theatre methods in facilitating this move. Whereas earlier work with scenario acting and role-play primarily focuses on use, my study shows that Object Theatre can help challenge stereotypical notions of product use to reveal sentimental human experiences with things. The paper analyses how two new object theatre methods, Object Cemetery and Talking Objects, develop shared understandings between designers on two projects: the design of booking systems and health tracking systems. The developed methods reveal the experienced qualities of digital products beyond efficiency and convenience, and enable a collaborative negotiation of design directions.