Uncomfortable Design: Designing for evil

July 21, 2014 • Design, Experience Design, Funny ux • Views: 10175

How might designers use their powers for evil, rather than good?

We all know that the purpose of User Experience design is to provide the best possible experience to a user. Designers conduct ethnographic research in a given context in order to understand how to create positive solutions for people. But what if we were to design something that deliberately works against the user completing his/her task?

What if… we used our skills for all the wrong reasons and created products that are incredibly uncomfortable to use? (How cruel would that be!) 

If proper user research has been done, it becomes easy to determine:

  • What makes or would make the experience worse
  • How to be able to simplify and improve the experience

Architect and designer Katerina Kamprani, has created a funny yet twisted project where she redesigns objects to make them unusable. I find it really interesting that although these designs are completely unusable, they show testament to the fact that Katerina is very aware of what works and doesn’t work for the user. She has simply chosen to capitulate on the uncomfortable angle. Quite a controversial way to reveal both UX skills and ergonomic understanding, but it works. I love it, Katerina!

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4 Responses to Uncomfortable Design: Designing for evil

  1. Anonymous says:

    Bride, I love reading your Blogs, very insightful and easy to read. Very Proud.

  2. Woodham says:

    Great post Bride, I love the idea of designers using their skills for evil. Katerina has clearly turned to the dark side and created some very humorous alterations. Keep the posts coming 🙂

  3. […] Uncomfortable Design: Designing for evil […]

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