More-Than-Human Design Practice: Review of Approaches in Mapping Subjective Parameters of Pedestrian Experiences

Abstract

This paper focuses on the concept of more-than-human design, which involves the inclusion of non-human actors, such as technology and infrastructure, in the design process. Specifically, the paper examines the technology of the urban environment as infrastructure and its potential use in designing complex and dynamic urban spaces that cater to different types of users. The paper explores how environmental data can act as a bridge between humans and nature, promoting empathy towards more-than-human perspectives. It emphasizes the need to question the human-centric approach to design and to form new design practices that integrate different abilities and contextual significance of data. The aim is to establish interactions between humans, objects, and other things through design practices that recognize and integrate different abilities, both human and artificial while overcoming technological determinism that dominates many narratives. This is achieved by expanding design theory and methodology towards "more-than-human design." The paper presents a review of existing approaches and methods from various fields as new input in considering subjective parameters of urban experience and new design practices in line with "more-than-human design" paradigms. The paper illustrates the urban user experience through the example of pedestrian traffic in interchange systems. While subjective parameters of users can be shown through various surveys, the paper emphasizes the importance of visual perception in collecting spatial information and its connection with cognitive processes. Developing eye-tracking technologies is becoming increasingly popular in spatial cognition research. The paper proposes using visualization of eye-tracking data to create mental maps that help in the cognitive mapping of the urban pedestrian experience in complex processes. The processed results can be used as input for user interfaces and new design practices. Designers need to take the underpinning technology seriously before they can design with it.