Teaching Experience Design Using Poems as Cultural Probes

Training user experience (UX) design students to develop interactive products valuing the subjective experience as a catalyst is a challenge. Experience design implies a deep understanding of the values, culture, beliefs and practices of a target user group and also sensitivity to consciously integrate them in products with distinctive qualities. This paper presents a method experimented along three years of the Master’s Degree Program in Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology. The method uses poems as cultural probes and as an access door to experience cultural elements and to embed them in the design of meaningful interactions. Beside the presentation of the method, the paper illustrates student projects that exemplify the approach. It concludes with recommendations to experience designers for transforming socio-cultural factors into product features which promote a valuable subjective experience.