Jonathan Hanahan
Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

For most of its existence, communication design has prioritized visual feedback to users. Even today’s digital interfaces only use other senses, like touch and sound, to alert users to look at a device. As our physical and digital worlds further entwine, a new feedback methodology is required that embraces alternative senses as primary feedback methods, particularly in compromised experiences—where a screen is unavailable, dangerous, or distracting from a primarily complex task. 

My research is interested in evolving a pedagogy that builds on the foundation of craft associated with visual design yet translates it into alternative senses as a catalyst for a world where adding more screens is no longer a valid solution. Through my work in the Sensory and Ambient Interfaces Lab (SAIL) at Wash U, which I founded in 2022, I am building a body of research into alternative feedback strategies that invert the visual-first priority of digital feedback and investigate how information is translated through ambient strategies that “complement a human’s environment, rather than impose themselves on it.”

Through this presentation, I will showcase a range of strategies developed for ubiquitous (apple watch) and novel technologies (custom printable textiles) that output bespoke patterns, intensities, and frequencies at numerous locations on the body to relay complex data non-visually. I will present case studies in development at the Sensory and Ambient Interfaces Lab (SAIL) at Wash U, including current research with WashU athletics, primarily the rowing team, to develop haptic interfaces for performance enhancement. Through this example, I will showcase a design-led research approach to identify user needs and opportunities, design elegant haptic solutions, and test strategies that augment human performance and accelerate the Boyd Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA) loop for situational awareness and decision-making in compromised experiences. These foundational pilot investigations aspire to further collaborative opportunities in other compromised experiences including medicine, military, safety, and more.

This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 11.1: Boston University on Friday, October 25, 2024.