While I am aware of many ways in which websites and online services can fail, or appear uncomfortable to use, I am looking for specific manifestations of unpleasant design in the digital domain. My definition of unpleasant design is that which promotes social control through discomfort, pain, and persuasion. It raises the value of a product or its surroundings by preventing specific use scenarios such as sleeping on a park bench or loitering in a shopping mall. Unpleasant Design is not about the failure to make beautiful products but about successfully excluding certain social groups and restricting certain uses of objects.
Taking these into account, can there be such a thing as digital unpleasant design? Does anyone have an experience that would be relevant to share in this context? Which websites and online services come to mind when thinking of unpleasant design? Any feedback or suggestion is welcome!
Of course there is...
Depending on the skills of the designer it is very easy to find very unpleasant compositions.
I could give you several ones.
Since I am a professor and my students often work with 3d simulations...
In this case some of them can really produce very very unpleasant designs... :)
That's interesting. You mean like nauseous experiences, or unpleasant in another sense?
Would glitch art be relevant to your interests? I tend to think of such examples as intentional rather than mistakes or simply bad designs. See: https://jonas.do/assets/essays/glitch-art-jonasdowney.pdf and http://art310-f12-hoy.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/Glitch+Studies+Manifesto+rewrite+for+Video+Vortex+2+reader.pdf/379639572/Glitch+Studies+Manifesto+rewrite+for+Video+Vortex+2+reader.pdf.
Such works are not always bad or unpleasant aesthetically, but reflect moments of unpleasantness in efficacy (i.e., the web site doesn't load properly, etc.) in juxtaposition with design that may be unpleasant for all kinds of reasons.
Also, cf. the uncanny valley in human simulation design.
Very interesting point of view - thank you, Sarah. I will definitely consider glitches in terms of their (un)programmed unpleasantness. Uncanny valley too, although it is important to keep in perspective their (in)capacity to promote some form of social control (rather than engagement). Maybe engagement with uncanny objects is a form of unpleasant design. Many thanks!
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