Summary
This teaching activity introduces students to what provocations are in relation to more-than-human perspectives in design. In this teaching activity we distinguish between provotypes, as the materialisation of provocations in design artefacts, and provotyping as a process to trigger and pose tensions and dilemmas of current everyday practices. We illustrate how provocations can be materialised and experimented with and why designerly provocations complements current design methods to cultivate design explorations that accommodate alternative approaches for embracing more-than-human perspective.
Motivation
To address the limitations of human-centrism in current technology and interaction design methods, we illustrate how provocations can be part of nurturing more-than-human perspectives in design explorations. Provocations have been used for centuries by artists and activists to raise awareness and foster critique of current political and societal issues. Bringing provocation into design practice, we illustrate how provocations offer an alternative approach for engaging and reflecting on more-than-human perspectives.
Through the activity, students will get an introduction to provocations in design. This includes two perspectives on design activities to frame and materialise designerly provocations. One perspective introduces students to designing with more-than-human perspectives as an approach to trigger and question assumptions that designers, stakeholders, and future users may take for granted in the design process. The other perspective introduces students to designing for more-than-human situations, where design becomes about experimenting and triggering the performance of mundane everyday practice.
Learning outcomes
After the teaching activity students should be able to:
- Understand how provocations can be materilised in provotypes and used in design activities to cultivate more-than-human perspectives.
- Identify potential mundane situations, in which provotyping may be used to triggered by reflections and discussions around more-than-human topic.
- Reflect on intended and unintended consequences of such design interventions.
Teacher guidance
Activity 1: Lecture, Group size: All, Time: 45 min
The teacher introduces students to ideas of provocations, provotypes and provotyping and illustrating how provocations can be used to cultivate more-than-human perspectives.
Activity 2: Exercise, Group size: 3-4, Time: 45 min
Students work in groups to design, discuss, and reflect on how provocations can be used as part of designing to cultivate more-than-human perspectives. In dialogue with the students, the teacher inquiry how the students are doing and advises on aspects to consider.
Activity 3: Share in class, Group size: All, Time: 45 min
The teacher chairs a class discussion, asking for reflections on experiences, and consolidating the lessons learned.
Questions for assessment
Examples of questions to include in an assessment activity:
- Give an example of a provotype using the three provocative design dimensions.
- Give how provocations can cultivate more-than-human perspectives through design by triggering mundane everyday life.
- What are the (un)intended outcomes of triggering this mundane practice?
Recommended readings
Jensen, R. H., Nilsson, E. M., Hansen, AM., Yoo, D. & Eriksson, E. (2025). Provocations and More-Than-Human Perspectives in Human-Computer Interaction. Interacting with Computers, 2025. iwaf020, https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwaf020
Jensen, R. H., Encinas, E., & Raptis, D. (2022). Spicing It Up: From Ubiquitous Devices to Tangible Things Through Provocation. In TEI 2022 – Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction: TEI ’22 (pp. 1-15). Article 33 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3490149.3502257
Category
Constituency
Duration
3 hours
Materials
Credits
This teaching activity is inspired by Bardzell et al. and Jensen et al.’s framings of designing for provocations, and Casnati et al and Jensen et al.’s conceptualisations of designerly provocations to trigger more-than-human perspectives
Bardzell, S., Bardzell, J., Forlizzi, J., Zimmerman, J., & Antanitis, J. (2012). Critical design and critical theory: the challenge of designing for provocation. In Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ‘12), ACM https://doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318001
Casnati, F., Ianniello, A., Romani, A. (2024). Provocation Through Narratives: New Speculative Design Tools for Human-Non-Human Collaborations. In: Zanella, F., et al. Multidisciplinary Aspects of Design. Design! OPEN 2022. Springer Series in Design and Innovation , vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49811-4_71
Jensen, R. H., Nilsson, E. M., Hansen, AM., Yoo, D. & Eriksson, E. (2025). Provocations and More-Than-Human Perspectives in Human-Computer Interaction. Interacting with Computers, 2025. iwaf020, https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwaf020
Jensen, R. H., Encinas, E., & Raptis, D. (2022). Spicing It Up: From Ubiquitous Devices to Tangible Things Through Provocation. In TEI 2022 – Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction: TEI ’22 (pp. 1-15). Article 33 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3490149.3502257[RHJ1]