Beyond the Optimal Flow: Pause, Detachment, Serendipity, and Action

Since a few years, a number of academic papers have been proposing to shift from user-centered design to human-centered (or person) design. In this contribution, we discuss as the common thread underlying these works the idea that design should also address the reflective part of our human experience and not only aim to maximize the experiential aspects. Our review is complemented with examples derived from the Internet world and from ICT consumer products. The main research areas we see as promising for the approach of “design for reflection” are design for pauses, design for detachment, design for serendipity, and design for action.