Design Research Informed by Philosophical Perspectives on Technology
Doctoral Thesis Research at Simon Fraser University (2014-2018)
This research explores intersections between philosophy of technology, especially the postphenomenological approach and its frameworks, and Design-oriented Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. In particular, this doctoral thesis project aims to show how postphenomenology can be utilized in design research and help guide efforts of exploring to better attend to human-centeredness in HCI.
My dissertation is titled: Design-Oriented HCI through Postphenomenology
I was supervised by: Prof. Ron Wakkary (SFU and Technical University Eindhoven), Prof. Peter-Paul Verbeek (University of Twente, The Netherlands), and Prof. Carman Neustaedter (SFU). Kristina Höök (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) was my external examiner. Gabriela Aceves-Sepulveda was my internal examiner at SFU.
Abstract
This doctoral dissertation presents a reflexive account of a design researcher exploring a way to complement human-centered approaches in design-oriented Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) through postphenomenology. This endeavour is based on the possibility that human-centeredness in HCI may obscure aspects of the understanding of humans, technology, and the relations that come about between them. Postphenomenology, a contemporary strand of the philosophy of technology, seems to offer conceptualizations and a more holistic view that can deepen an understanding of the human and the many different kinds of relations that can emerge with technology in the context of HCI.
Motivated by this, the objective of this dissertation is to explore how postphenomenology can contribute a holistic perspective on human relations with technology that can help complement and expand human-centered approaches to design research and practice. To address this, postphenomenology is introduced as a novel analytical framing. Then, three cases of reflective design research practice are presented that illustrate how postphenomenology can be of value as a productive analytical lens by using it: (i) to retrospectively analyze an empirical design ethnography study of guide dog teams, (ii) to analyze a Research through Design (RtD) deployment study of the table-non-table, and (iii) to create a synthesized analysis of a range of contemporary prior RtD projects in an annotated portfolio to generatively open up new ways of looking at them and provide a scaffolding for future research opportunities.
What is revealed in design-oriented HCI through postphenomenology, as demonstrated in this dissertation, is a holistic perspective on the matters concerning the field of HCI that can be complementary to previous ways of understanding. Postphenomenology opens up a view of the human that in one way decenters the human and puts technology and the mediating effect of technology at the center. In this, the human, still a central concern, is understood as technologically mediated. This perspective overcomes a narrow view of the human present in human-centered approaches and it can help HCI researchers get a more holistic view of the human while taking into account the relations that in fact ‘make’ the human.
Keywords: human-technology relations; postphenomenology; reflective design research practice; field work; human-animal relations; posthumanism
Technological mediation. Illustration uses descriptions from Verbeek’s book ‘What Things Do’ (2005).
This has become a popular illustration for Mediation Theory. Feel free to use it with “© Sabrina Hauser” or citing my DIS2018 paper (citation below). Thanks!
Feel free to use this illustration citing “© Sabrina Hauser” or my DIS2018 paper citation below.
Publications from my doctoral work include:
My Dissertation: Hauser, S. (2018) Design-Oriented HCI through Postphenomenology. Doctoral Dissertation (English). Simon Fraser University [PDF].
Hauser, S., Oogjes, D., Wakkary, R., Verbeek, P. (2018). An Annotated Portfolio on Doing Postphenomenology Through Research Products. In Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 459-471. *Best paper award! [PDF]
Hauser, S. 2018. Doing Postphenomenology through Things: Interdisciplinary Overlap Between Design Research and Philosophy of Technology. 2018 Conference on Human-Technology Relations: Postphenomenology and Philosophy of Technology (PHTR 2018). (Paper Abstract and Talk). University of Twente, The Netherlands.
Hauser, S., Wakkary, R., Odom, W., Verbeek, P., Desjardins, A., Lin, H., Dalton, M., Schilling, M., & de Boer, G. (2018). Deployments of the table-non-table: A Reflection on the Relation Between Theory and Things in the Practice of Design Research. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA. (13pgs). [PDF]
Wakkary, R., Oogjes, D., Lin, H., & Hauser, S. (2018). Philosophers Living with the Tilting Bowl. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA. (12pgs). *Best paper honorable mention award! [PDF]
Wakkary, R., Desjardins, A., & Hauser, S. (2016) Unselfconscious Interaction. Interacting with Computers. 2016; 28 (4): 501-520. doi: 10.1093/iwc/iwv018. (19pgs). [PDF]
Wakkary, R., Odom, W., Hauser, S., Hertz, G., & Lin, H. (2015). Material Speculation: Actual Artifacts for Critical Inquiry. In Proceedings of The Fifth Decennial Aarhus Conference on Critical Alternatives (AA ’15). Aarhus University Press 97-108. (11pgs). [PDF]
Hauser, S., Wakkary, R., & Neustaedter, C., (2014). Understanding guide dog team interactions: design opportunities to support work and play. In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM conference on Designing interactive systems (DIS 14). ACM, NY, USA, pp. 295-304. (10pgs). [PDF]
