The Researcher’s Role in

Consequence Design

An Event Apart HCD, July 2020 | Ron Bronson

Every problem is a design problem
Victor Papanek, Design for The Real World (1971)
Every design problem is a research
problem
Consequence Design builds resilience
into systems that lack it.
Terms
Designer myopia

The nearsightedness of designing for our own

experiences rather than solving actual problems
Attention Theft

Benign interactions meant to siphon attention

over small periods of time.
Coercive Friction

Interactions meant to coerce or induce users to

make counterintuitive decisions
“The whimsy of certain unsubscribe messages
is a misdirection by which brands obscure the
actual reasons, prudent or trivial, we want out.”

Heather White, “The Wrong Goodbye” - Real Life Magazine (2020)

Guilt Friction

Design patterns that employ guilt as a user

retention strategy
Design stance

The attitude the product takes, the personality it

has. 
 “The fantasy-structure of intentionality
encourages an aspirational form of digital
consumption.”

Lacey, Caldwell, & Beattie, “The Perfect User” - Real Life Magazine (2020)
The Researcher’s Role
Interaction design in 2020 is
grafting a UI layer onto an existing
experience & calling it innovation
Empathy won’t solve the
consequences of hostile design
“The best result for any technology is to
solve meaningful problems in impactful
ways.”

Golden Krishna, “The Best Interface Is No Interface”

Combat the mythology of
delight
Recognizing the constraints
of user research
Interrogating The Researcher’s Role

Are we framing the right problems?

What biases impact our market view?
Who are the decision-makers?
What factor does research play in making those decisions?
hey.com
Recommendations
“Services fail because of gaps and conflicts
in their designs.”

Majid Iqbal - “Thinking In Services”

Liminal UX
Liminal UX
Whose job is it to care about
transition states?
16x Frame

Organizes the 16 elements of design found in

every service.
Improve your teams

Reimagine the design roles we design

Designated Dissenter

A sprint exercise where a team member imagines

ways product can be abused
Friction Audits
Developing entire UX research
sprints around friction,
deception, and mining for
hostility where we don’t
anticipate it
Harm Analysis

Before launching a new feature, speculative harm

gives us the tools to assess where our myopia lies
The Four Rs

• Reconsider your own • Rewrite your protocols as needed

assumptions to mine for information about
liminal UX states
• Reframe the problem statement
with the lens of an 'edge case' • Repeat this process
 “Products are not innocent; they mediate our
behavior; how we collaborate, how we interact with
our environment how we deal with social issues.”

Alain Dujardin, “The unintended consequences of design”

q ronbronson.com / @ronbronson