Uncomfortable Materiality: Engaging with Tangible Negative Experiences
Roy Op het Veld, Amy Winters · 2026
Negative experiences challenge the familiar ideals of ease, usability, and control that often shape interaction design practice. This work-in-progress investigates how such experiences can be intentionally engaged and mediated through materials in tangible interaction design, and how they might unfold in everyday contexts beyond artistic practice. Using a Research-through-Design approach, we combine first-person material explorations with a co-creation workshop to study how affective tensions such as discomfort, awkwardness, irritation, and even disgust or cringe arise through making. The study introduces three early-stage insights: Material Subjectivity, Materializing Negative Experiences in Practice, and The Positivity Appeal. Together, these insights show how materials can mediate and reframe negative experience as a generative design resource, offering designers new ways to approach negative experience in everyday interaction.