Designing for Homo Explorens : open social play in performative frames

Abstract

Designing for Homo Explorens is a compositional design perspective within interaction design academia. It extends the Homo Ludens view of humans as playful creatures with the perspective of exploratory interaction. It focuses on socially exploratory interaction between participants mediated through designed artifacts. In the form of a Manifesto, four aspects are introduced which highlight important design dimensions to consider in Designing for Homo Explorens. The four aspects of the Manifesto are concerned with creating exploration through internal complexity, experiential exploration through full-body interaction, social playfulness through distortions of situated norms and a frame for performative interactions. The insights in the four aspects come from knowledge gained through experimenting with twelve working prototypes in real-life contexts, combined with contemporary streams of theory regarding ambiguity, somaesthetics, norms, situatedness and performativity.