‘Sine qua non’ of aesthetic experiences

This week is all about experience design and particularly about interactive systems that inspire inquisitive use. The term comes from John Dewey [1], who characterised it by the interrelated aspects of experience, inquiry and conflict. The paper “Design for Inquisitive Use” [2] explores the ways how inquisitive use can contribute to interaction design practice. Author builds on Deweyan pragmatism; explaining different aspect of it on a theoretical level and also describing two case-studies where these ideas were explored.

Dalsgaard stresses the importance of conflict, as it being the most fundamental characteristic of human nature, and how it is a crucial part of experiences. He also states that when designing for inquisitive use, the designers should take in count the past experiences of users in order to truly engage people into experience design.

The two case-studies they used – Balder’s Funeral Pyre and Silence and Whispers –  where installation exhibits which experimented with inquisitive use. They used visual media and audio narratives to create conflict and evoke distinct experiences among users. Author pointed out some of the drawbacks that inquisitive use has in the means of limited degree of challenge in information inquiry and change in the installation and interaction. Although they tried to blur this using built-in delays but still the real power change fell on the participant’s shoulders.

I think inquisitive use in interaction design is highly individual design concept. Also it is one of the hardest method to use for designers, because you have to take in count the previous experiences of the user. But how do you design something personal for a wider audience? Would you just make something provocative to encourage conflict and hope that people will relate to it in a personal level? I have really mixed thought about these pragmatisms, as they seems interesting, I think I would never use these methods in my research.

1. Dewey, J. 1882-1953. The Collected Works of John Dewey (Ed Boydston, J. A) Southern Illinois University Press.

2. Dalsgaard, P. (2008). Designing for inquisitive use. Proceedings of DIS’08: Designing        Interactive Systems, 21–30. doi:10.1145/1394445.1394448