A Practice-Based Approach to Post-Human Computer Interaction: Design Notes from Nature Scenes

Abstract

This pictorial explores the processes and methods of designing for non-human animal users and human visitors through the example of Nature Scenes. Nature Scenes are a set of urban outdoor interspecies shelters and feeding stations designed by us, the Interaction Research Studio, commissioned by Jane Withers Studio for Brompton Design District 2019, as part of London Design Festival (LDF). In this pictorial we document the various steps of designing, prototyping and deploying the ‘scenes’, and examine the animal-human relationship in context of product and interaction design with the intention to advance the current discourse on interspecies and post-human practice-based design research. We unpick the complexities and contradictions that come with designing for animals as well as for humans, and introduce suggestions of how Post-Human Computer Interaction (PHCI) can be approached going forward.