Design for Togetherness: Neurodiverse conversation in interactive praxis

Abstract

This doctoral thesis describes a practice-based design inquiry into sensory methods of communication for neurodiverse children. It identifies the agential role of responsive design artefacts in facilitating first-person participatory experiences to inform the design process, particularly in relation to interactive objects and environments for autistic children. The interaction design research employs critical and disruptive methods of participatory engagement to elicit feedback from populations that are typically under-represented in practice-based research and in turn, examines methods of involving these people in the design process. This is developed from the author’s experience in designing embodied and sensory-focused interactions, including media art installation and personal responsive objects for autistic children. The design and use of interactive artefacts in this thesis are described for their interventional potential and how resulting ‘conversations’ can be used as a tool for increasing participatory engagement and understanding, leading to co-creative partnerships and the inclusion of neurodiverse voices in the design process.

The thesis examines the author’s interaction design practice and the sensitivities this brings to making processes and materiality. Reflective practice is employed to examine how these might be applied to exploring unique sensory interactions that neurodiverse people have with the world. This is seen in the development of the Responsive Dome Environment (RDE), a space in which a neurodiverse group of children and their parents interact with a multisensory feedback system. The author’s position and assumptions as a designer are challenged throughout interaction with autistic and neurotypical children, both in the RDE and subsequent interviews used to inform iterative development. This practice is located by the author interviewing expert practitioners to compare and contrast related fields of inquiry.

Participatory engagements are reflected upon in an ‘open studio’ format to identify and establish the author’s ‘conversational’ practice, a framework through which neurodiverse perspectives can be elicited and described to inform an iterative design process. The unique features of this practice are formalised in response to working with participants in the RDE and is presented as a creative approach for interaction design practitioners working alongside complex populations with the aim of embracing human diversity to inform design praxis.