2021

'Hybrid Comfort'

Creating meaning where there seems to be none

CHALLENGE

Exploring how to design for sensitive settings and consider emotional complexity to create more meaningful user experiences for the bereaved.

TEAM

Leonie Dittli & Linda Steck (Manufacturing)

MY ROLE

Creative Direction, Designer, Researcher

During the course of my master thesis i was delving deeper into what grief is and means to people as well as how it has changed and will change over time. As per with all projects i do, research for me always needs to be tested through design and vice versa - a procedure called Design-Inclusive Research. For me this mostly takes place when moving from one research phase into the next. In the case of my artifact ‘Ambient Comfort’ this resulted in an exploration of how to consider emotional complexity when designing a product, and how it might change the meaning of the product itself. The outcome was a speculative design object, that reflects research insights while testing limitations, challenges and possibilities for the final artifact of the thesis.

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Synopsis

During the course of my master thesis i was delving deeper into what grief is and means to people as well as how it has changed and will change over time. As per with all projects i do, research for me always needs to be tested through design and vice versa - a procedure called Design-Inclusive Research. For me this mostly takes place when moving from one research phase into the next. In the case of my artifact ‘Ambient Comfort’ this resulted in an exploration of how to consider emotional complexity when designing a product, and how it might change the meaning of the product itself. The outcome was a speculative design object, that reflects research insights while testing limitations, challenges and possibilities for the final artifact of the thesis.

Jump to Design Overview

01

Exploration

Making meaning of memes (Autoethnography)

In my thesis, I focused on discovering native terms, experiences, emotions, and narratives. This was to better understand the bereaved's situation, context, and needs. Following the collection of large amounts of field data, analysis was necessary. To facilitate this transition between research and analysis, I created a speculative design object. For this, I identified my target audience's emotions, values, and fears using a process known as mesmerization.

A mesmerization breaking down values, emotions, fears of the recently bereaved observed through the lense of memes

Key Insights from this process:

✹ Aversion of defining grief as a singular emotion or experience: The bereaved often voice the need to define grief themselfes, referring to its fluid nature and diverse experience.
✹ Fear of being told how to grief while also comparing your own grief to others: The taboo around grief leads to social and personal insecurities.
✹ Loosing Religion but finding spirituality: While religious rituals play less and less of a role, spiritual ones like affirmations, shrines and dance ceremonies are gaining popularity.
✹ Want for new and contemporary depicitions of grief: No more black clothes, individualized approach.

These insights led me to identify a problem area in my design: Grieving is a complex and stigmatized experience, and bereaved people lack safe spaces to cope. Therefore, and because of Mourners' fears of forgetting their deceased loved ones, the goal of my design was not to forget or fix grief itself and rather to provide a platform for self-expression and care in grief.

“The bereaved are missing opportunities for self expression and safe spaces that properly reflect the fluid nature of what grief is and validate them in their emotions.”

Problem Statement

02

Research

Design Principles (Speculative Design)

A diagram describing the three design principles: fluidity, self expression and Care/Validate

I quickly realized that giving grieving people agency over how they deal with their grief was essential. As a result, I changed my approach to my design: Instead of creating a fixed product, I decided to create a speculative one, exploring how products for bereaved people and other sensitive settings should be in the future. In order to accomplish this, I focused on answering two questions simultaneously:

Developing a design process based mostly on these two elements, I compared my mesmeric values (how do people) with suitable design references (how to design) and synthesized them into a speculative design. I called the concept that i decided to go for ‘Ambient Comfort’.

A comparison of my mesmeric values (how do people) with suitable design references (how to design) as well as a synthesized speculative design — Showcase of the design synthesis

03

Analysis

Fabrics and Fluidity (Design Synthesis)

Ambient Comfort was designed as a multi-purpose tool of self expression. The fabric, 2x4 meters in size and out of cotton from sustainable sources, was dip-dyed and screenprinted with the words ‘stay a while and rest’. A bigger phrase ‘Your grief was valid’ was applied afterwards with yarn. The writing is meant as an affirmation as well as invitation, to either tell yourself or others that your grief is valid, and creating a safe space for your emotions.

Images showcasing the production process of the final design, a textile banner — With the help of two students from the BA Trends & Idenity we manufactured ‘Ambient Comfort’ in two working days

“The way the fabric is used defines the grief and emotions a person wants to express.”

The way the fabric is used defines the grief and emotions a person wants to express. It is up to the users to decide what the design will be to them, whether it is a tent for rest or a flag that calls for acceptance of grief's diversity; or perhaps just a single strip of fabric unraveling in the wind. Ambient Comfort explores how emotional complexity's fluid nature requires a design to be created in the hands of its users - all the designer can do is lay a foundation. This makes the object an interaction - between designer and user - where a certain amount of freedom is necessary for the speculative design object to expand its use beyond the fabric itself.

The banner standing in a field of yellow grass with olive bushes and trees in the background and a blue sky above

Two images showcasing the banner as tents as well as a wall

Different images showing how the fabric is thrown

04

Analysis

Emotional Evaluation and Reflection

I tested my design object after its creation, first in a series of photographs of me interacting with the fabric, then a freeform study with my friend a creative mentor Juliana Schneider as well as finally in the enviorment of an exhibition, where it was set up as a tent, to rest and ponder grief and death. The simplicity of the original idea gave a lot of space for creative autonomy and i was very happy with how it turned out in the end.

Three people, a man and two women, all using the fabric in different ways (blanket etc.)

Using my speculative design as a bridge to my master thesis as well as its theory, i regarded 'Hybrid Comfort' as a positive reinforcment of ideas that i pondered since the beginning of my studies. How could a visual rhetoric for my project take form, how is it possible to create meaningful design experiences, and what is important to me when conveying grief ? The answer to these questions i now found in my design: my work should create a space of freedom - to explore emotions through interaction yet leave space for the intangible, the impossible to put into words. Moving on from the research to the analysis to as well as the consequent design transfer i carried this epipahncy and referenced it as well as the design object in my work on the thesis.

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