Provocations and More-Than-Human Perspectives in Human–Computer Interaction

Abstract This paper addresses the emerging trajectory of the more-than-human within Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Traditional human-centred design (HCD) methods focus on centring human needs, designing seamless user experiences, and evaluating utility factors. However, recent HCI research argues that human-centrism limits our understanding of enmeshed and pluralist design situations, and hence calls for approaches that embrace and can expand the HCI methods to include more-than-human things, beings, materials, and ecosystems. Yet, few concrete HCI methods engage with more-than-human perspectives. In this paper, we explore the use of provocations in design as a means to trigger tensions and reflections, particularly through provotypes and provotyping, as a way for designers to engage with more-than-human perspectives. Through two design examples, we demonstrate how designerly provocations can reveal the entangled relationships between humans and more-than-humans. The aim is to inspire the integration of more-than-human perspectives in HCI research, practice, and teaching.