Stop doing user experience design, start doing relation artefact design

Abstract In this provocation, I propose relation artefact design (RAD) as a new approach to human-computer interaction (HCI). The aim is for HCI to stop designing artefacts that people love so much that they look at them all day and instead focus on designing artefacts that make people look at other people. The motivation is the failure of the promises of the disappearing computer and working through the computer made in the last 30 years. The theoretical analysis draws on the design of everyday things such as wedding rings, historical examples of socio-technical HCI designs, and the proposed RAD vocabulary from human work interaction design applied to train station design. The discussion distinguishes RAD from relatedness technologies and suggests future research to include studies of disengaging and less computer use.