User-centered dread : A Lovecraftian critique of design

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Urquhart, Lewis and Lawrie, Emma; (2026) User-centered dread : A Lovecraftian critique of design. In: DRS2026: Research Papers. Proceedings of DRS . Design Research Society. (https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.287)

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Abstract

This paper offers a speculative critique of contemporary design practice through the lens of Lovecraftian horror by critically interrogating assumptions embedded in user-centered design theory. Drawing on the oeuvre of 'weird fiction' author H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmically pessimistic mythologies, this paper explores three thematic dimensions-control, user unknowability, alien materiality-to reveal the limitations of human-centered design paradigms. Utilising examples from literature, film, and everyday experience, this critique demonstrates how design’s aspirational narratives, centered on mastery, empathy, and progress, are increasingly inadequate in addressing the complexities of a more-than-human world. The concept of 'user-centered dread' emerges as a central provocation, highlighting how users are led into states of incomprehension and even terror through supposedly benign design work; design itself becoming a site horror. By framing design as a speculative interface with the Lovecraftian inhuman, the paper graphically reimages aspects of design-thinking that can potentially challenge this pessimism and slay Lovecraft's monsters.

ORCID iDs

Urquhart, Lewis ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9773-8225 and Lawrie, Emma ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8295-6490;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)