Design for Discomfort

Experiences that lead to meaningful growth (for individuals, in relationships, in
communities) nearly always involve discomfort. It can be inherent to the process-even a key aspect–of reaching a desired outcome for participants. Discomfort with good reason. This is the starting point for this course.
In The Art of Interactive Design, Chris Crawford makes an analogy between creating interactive media and holding a conversation. A standard design process often looks to set up “conversations” that are comfortable and pleasurable, with a low barrier to entry for users. But in pursuit of meaningful growth, we need to engineer what Douglas Stone at Harvard Law has termed “Difficult Conversations”. As designers, artists, and creative-technologists, we can find unique insights and devise innovative solutions for leading people through them.
Weekly lectures and assignments will focus on identifying and prototyping creative experiences that involve one of four forms of discomfort (visceral, cultural, controlrelated, and intimacy-related). Examples will be considered from fields including visual art, performance, memorials, product design, and speculative design. Students will benefit from some prior familiarity with one or more of the following: psychology, conflict resolution, design-thinking, art-practice, or user-experience. All technical methodologies welcome.

By Nicholas Hubbard