Missing Link: Designing for Dependency

Paper in proceeding, 2011

In this paper, we investigate aspects of interaction design related to the appearance and context of dual-natured design objects, meaning artefacts with physical form and digital behaviour. In interaction design of today there is a focus on isolated artefacts/objects, but does not involve the context in the sense that it is a vital part of its design and expression. We argue for interaction designers to take respect to the dependency of computational design objects to their context in greater extent. We would like to ask interaction designers to look at their work as part of a whole, where their creations will influence / be influenced by the rest. A workshop method named ‘Missing Link’ used in teaching is proposed here. The workshop confronts questions on how to give up control of your design and at the same time in a creative way exploit the available rules of the bigger system.