Critical Theory and Interaction Design

Classic texts by thinkers from Althusser to Zizek alongside essays by leaders in interaction design and HCI show the relevance of critical theory to interaction design.

Why should interaction designers read critical theory? Critical theory is proving unexpectedly relevant to media and technology studies. The editors of this volume argue that reading critical theory--understood in the broadest sense, including but not limited to the Frankfurt School--can help designers do what they want to do; can teach wisdom itself; can provoke; and can introduce new ways of seeing. They illustrate their argument by presenting classic texts by thinkers in critical theory from Althusser to Zizek alongside essays in which leaders in interaction design and HCI describe the influence of the text on their work. For example, one contributor considers the relevance Umberto Eco's "Openness, Information, Communication" to digital content; another reads Walter Benjamin's "The Author as Producer" in terms of interface designers; and another reflects on the implications of Judith Butler's Gender Trouble for interaction design. The editors offer a substantive introduction that traces the various strands of critical theory.

Taken together, the essays show how critical theory and interaction design can inform each other, and how interaction design, drawing on critical theory, might contribute to our deepest needs for connection, competency, self-esteem, and wellbeing.

Contributors
Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, Olav W. Bertelsen, Alan F. Blackwell, Mark Blythe, Kirsten Boehner, John Bowers, Gilbert Cockton, Carl DiSalvo, Paul Dourish, Melanie Feinberg, Beki Grinter, Hrönn Brynjarsdóttir Holmer, Jofish Kaye, Ann Light, John McCarthy, Søren Bro Pold, Phoebe Sengers, Erik Stolterman, Kaiton Williams., Peter Wright

Classic texts
Louis Althusser, Aristotle, Roland Barthes, Seyla Benhabib, Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Arthur Danto, Terry Eagleton, Umberto Eco, Michel Foucault, Wolfgang Iser, Alan Kaprow, Søren Kierkegaard, Bruno Latour, Herbert Marcuse, Edward Said, James C. Scott, Slavoj Zizek

Jeffrey Bardzell is Professor of Informatics in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

Shaowen Bardzell is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Design in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

. Mark Blythe is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at Northumbria University.

Jeffrey Bardzell is Professor of Informatics in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

Shaowen Bardzell is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Design in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

. Mark Blythe is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at Northumbria University.

. Mark Blythe is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at Northumbria University.

Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher and cultural critic, is Senior Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, and International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, The Parallax View, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic (with John Milbank), and Zizek's Jokes (Did you hear the one about Hegel and negation?), these five published by the MIT Press.

. Mark Blythe is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at Northumbria University.

Umberto Eco was an Italian semiotician, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist. He is the author of The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, and The Prague Cemetery, all bestsellers in many languages, as well as a number of influential scholarly works.

Alan Blackwell is Reader in Interdisciplinary Design in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge.

Elizabeth F. Churchill is a Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research in Santa Clara, CA.

Jeffrey Bardzell is Professor of Informatics in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

Søren Bro Pold is Associate Professor in Digital Design at Aarhus University and works with interface criticism, literature, and aesthetics.

Erik Stolterman is Professor in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington, and the coauthor of Thoughtful Interaction and The Design Way (second edition), both published by the MIT Press.

Paul Dourish is Chancellor's Professor of Informatics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction and coauthor of Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing, both published by the MIT Press.

Bruno Latour, a philosopher and anthropologist, is the author of We Have Never Been Modern, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Facing Gaia, Down to Earth, and many other books. He coedited (with Peter Weibel) the previous ZKM volumes Making Things Public, ICONOCLASH, and Reset Modernity! (all published by the MIT Press).

Carl DiSalvo is Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology.

. Mark Blythe is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at Northumbria University.

Arthur C. Danto is a Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University.

Jeffrey Bardzell is Professor of Informatics in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

Shaowen Bardzell is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Design in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

Peter Wright is Professor of Social Computing at Newcastle University. Wright and McCarthy are the coauthors of Technology as Experience (MIT Press) and Experience-Centered Design.

John McCarthy is Professor of Applied Psychology at University College Cork. McCarthy and Wright are the coauthors of Technology as Experience (MIT Press) and Experience-Centered Design.

Michel Foucault (1926-84) is widely considered to be one of the most influential academic voices of the twentieth century and has proven influential across disciplines.

John Bowers is Professor of Linguistics and Chair of the Linguistics Department at Cornell University.

Seyla Benhabib is Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University and author of The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era and other books.

Shaowen Bardzell is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Design in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.