Point of no Undo: Irreversible Interactions as a Design Strategy

Despite irreversibility being omnipresent in the lifeworld, research on interactions making use of irreversibility in computing systems is still in the early stages. User freedom – provided by the undo functionality – is considered to be a pillar of “usable” computer systems, overcoming irreversibility. Within this paper, we set up a thought experiment, challenging the “undo feature” and instead take advantage of irreversibility in the interaction with physical computing systems (tangibles, robots, etc). First, we present three material speculations, each inherently utilizing irreversibility. Second, we elaborate on the concept of irreversible interactions by contextualizing our work with critical HCI discourses and deducing three design strategies. Finally, we discuss irreversibility as a design element for self-reflection, meaningful acting, and a sustainable relationship with technology. While previously individual aspects of irreversibility have been explored, we contribute a comprehensive discussion of irreversible interactions in HCI presenting artifacts, a conceptualization, design strategies, and application purposes.