Designed behavior is at the core of the evocative and open-ended nature of Switch Critters. It is what has the potential to draw a person in to the secret world of the object.

By definition, “behavior” assumes intent, attitude or some amount of autonomy, programmed or organic, to be intrinsic in an object. When designing such behavior into the Switch Critters, the goal was for it to appear deep, fluid, and engaging but not frustrating or gadgety. Behaviors that are provocative and autonomous, yet learnable over time, seem to open up several new opportunities and experiential qualities for users. Jonathan Chapman describes a positive view of the outcomes this kind of behavior design can instigate:

Users can be drawn into discourse by embedding emergent properties that only become visible through engagement. The design of appropriately ambiguous scenarios torments users into perceiving artifacts through their own individually polished looking glass, rendering the subsequent experience autonomous. Spontaneity, magic and intimacy can therefore be catalyzed rather than planned through an object’s ability to reflect or somehow echo the nuances of an individual user, like an existential mirror. (pg 117)

Through collaboration with the writers, I can see that even with the simple behaviors of the prototypes, the experiential possibilities abound. The prototype Switch Critters took on the various personalities of annoyance, ally, confidant, infant, and distraction. From those personalities grew recollections, tales, descriptions, and visions of the future.

The choice to make semi-representational short films as expressions of behavior design addresses the inevitability that Switch Critters will be infused by their users-as-creators with a life of their own. It also demonstrates the expansion of design possibilities when a designer can be open to fictional, fantastic and poetic narratives as inspiration.

Thoughts on the Design Process:
Working with simple working prototypes and collaborating with creative writers turned out to be an inspiring practice towards understanding and designing object behavior. As mentioned on the Creative Writing as Research page, interpreting creative writing as design research constantly made me shift trajectories and think in new ways. It also gave me detailed story material for which to design supportive behaviors. The designs that manifested in the films and straight stories exhibit a framework that can host multiple narratives, but also portray a specific instance derived from an individual story. This inside/outside mode of thinking is, I think, essential in designing meaningful evocative objects and behaviors. The designer must simultaneously design the “open-ended” behavior and be inside the head of potential users to anticipate what the outcomes might be.

As the idea of Switch Critters evolved, from material communication studies to the objects they are currently, it has been a challenge to balance the designer’s voice and intent with the open-ended evocative structure that has potential to enrapt users in the compelling ways described above. Situation turned out to be the clincher. Without their functionality as light switches, the Critters would be toys or totems. But by positioning them as switches, one aspect of all the potential narratives remains anchored: that they are somehow related to light or electricity or the car... Employing this communication design strategy allows the designer to maintain some relevancy as co-author, while not impinging on users’ creativity. Of course, not all applications of evocative objects need to have an underlying message; but as emotionally involving artifacts, they do have a potential for changing thought and behavior.

 

Thoughts for future applications:
One difficulty for objects such as Switch Critters is that they, as yet, defy product categories. Are they toys? Electronics? Spiritual Consumer Goods? And who benefits from people taking more time with previously simple or non-existent tasks? This project, by means of its artifacts and documentation—a volume of creative writing, several short films and this website—can live in a critical realm without being mass-marketed. In the “real world” the closest comparisons to evocative interactive objects that I can think of are pets, works of art, interactive toys and video games.

While the final round of design on this project ends in speculation, it is my hope that the films and interaction scenarios will live as provocative leaping off points for myself and other designers to continue to explore the value and qualities of behavior design and evocative objects. Aspiring to design for the “real world,” I believe there are rich and playful engagements to be created that bridge the barren divide between the interactions of toys (such as Tamagatchi, Aibo, and Furbie) and the industrial interfaces of consumer technologies. This new class of product relies less on utility, industrial aesthetics and hard-edged information; and will include negotiation, play, thoughtful situations, evocative behavior and materiality, and open-ended interactions.