Summary
This teaching activity introduces students to more-than-human perspectives in technology design. The lecture begins by inviting students to reflect on their responsibility as designers in relation to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Next, pluriversal perspectives of design are then introduced as a way to approach more-than-human perspectives. Students are then introduced toto the importance of incorporating more-than-human perspectives in design and provided with an overview of key theoretical foundations. Methods and themes are discussed, highlighting central terminologies and keywords, enabling students to conduct their own research into more-than-human perspectives in technology design.
Motivation
The field of more-than-human perspectives in technology design is relatively new and yet not well defined. Without a basic understanding of the core more-than-human concepts, students may find it challenging to incorporate these perspectives into their design processes. This introduction lecture offers students a starting point to further explore themes and methods related to more-than-human perspectives in design.Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes
After the teaching activity students should be able to:
- Recognize themes and background theories related to more-than-human perspectives in technology design.
- Describe core concepts associated with more-than-human perspectives in technology design.
- Locate additional background theories related to some of the themes introduced.
Teacher guidance
Sequence of teaching–learning activities
Step 1: Lecture, Group size: All, Time: 20 min
The teacher briefly introduces the concept of the more-than-human and discusses the students’ roles as designers in this context. The teacher emphasizes the students’ responsibility to incorporate more-than-human perspective in their work, aligning with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Step 2: Group work, Group size: 2, Time: 20 min
Students are paired to discuss the three “how might we” questions presented in the slides related, which relate to working with more-than-human perspectives. The questions focus on identifying more-than-human values, addressing cultural appropriation, and critique technology designs for individual users. For each question, the teacher will facilitate a plenary session where a few student pairs can share their discussion.
Step 3: Lecture, Group size: All, Time: 50 min
The lecture continues by exploring reasons for working with more-than-human perspectives, and theoretical groundings for more-than-human perspectives in design.
Step 4: Group work, Group size: 4, Time: 20 min
Students are divided into groups and are asked to consider the relevance of these perspectives to their current or past projects. They are encouraged to research more-than-human perspectives in technology design using academic literature search engines and the keywords and terminologies provided in the lecture.
Step 5: Share in class, Group size: All, Time: 10 min
Students briefly share their findings.
Questions for assessment
Examples of questions to include in an assessment activity:
- Which of the background theories introduced in this lecture would you like to study more in depth, and why?
- Why is it relevant to work with more-than-human perspectives in design?
- Why is it important to consider multiple kinds of values and worldviews when working with more-than-human perspectives in design?
Readings
Eriksson, Eva; Nilsson, Elisabet M.; Yoo, Daisy; and Bekker, Tilde (2024). More-than-Human Perspectives in Human-Computer Interaction Research: A Scoping Review. In Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 72, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3679318.3685408