Understanding the role of the human designer in more-than-human design

In recent years, HCI designers have become more aware of the limitations of designing from a human-centered perspective. More-than-human theories have emerged in HCI to highlight the pressing issues of today's ecological and technological challenges and help view design as more-than-human. HCI designers are left with the challenge of orienting themselves and needing to better understand their role in this context. In this exploratory thesis, I borrow Wakkary's notion of the speaking subject to situate the human designer within more-than-human design. I take a first-person approach, use two design cases, and employ techniques such as retrospective analysis and poetry to show the importance of the role and its embodied nuances from a queering angle. This research offers HCI designers new orientations, attitudes, experiences, and qualities for working within this new context. Ultimately, this work contributes to strengthening the position of HCI designers in more-than-human design.