Designing with Feeling
Corey E. Brady, Tessaly Jen, Lauren Vogelstein, Efrat Dim · Interaction Design and Children · 2022
Technological supports for collective, embodied ideation that were only dimly envisioned by 20th century futurists are now solid fact. For instance, advances in location tracking, mixed reality, and agent-based modeling have converged, enabling groups to collectively construct and animate shared, dynamic representations in real time. Pre-existing genres of activity may support activity design here, including participatory simulations; interactive theater; embodied play; or games. However, if we want emerging tools for collective ideation to be expressive for all groups, we need to attend carefully to how participants themselves conceptualize their potential. This paper describes a project that engaged high-school students in designing embodied participatory activities for groups of younger students, about a topic they selected as important: sustainability in social-ecological systems. Students’ design work was diverse and generative. We focus here on one emergent theme: design decisions that aimed to evoke particular feelings in participants, to foster learning and reflection on actions.