Becoming with: towards the inclusion of animals as participants in design processes

Abstract

In this exploratory paper, we advocate for a way to mitigate the anthropocentrism inherent in interaction-design methodologies. We propose to involve animals that live in anthropic environments as participants in design processes. The current relationships between animals and technology have an inevitable impact on their well-being and raise fundamental ethical questions concerning our design policies. Drawing from the work of Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway, we argue for a situated approach in which we reflect upon concrete design contexts. We explore the notion of becoming with as a conceptual framework for the intuitive and bodily understanding that takes place between humans and animals when they encounter one-another in shared contexts. Adopting a research through design approach, we further explore this notion by reflecting upon two different participatory design projects with two dogs. We found these reflections to offer valuable perspectives for designers to analyse and discuss their iterative processes.