Provocation (HCI)

In human-computer interaction, a designed artifact whose purpose is to unsettle assumptions, provoke debate, or surface hidden values rather than to solve a defined problem. Provocations draw on traditions of critical design (Dunne and Raby), adversarial design (DiSalvo), speculative design, cultural probes, design activism, and prototyping-to-provoke (Boer and Donovan). In accessibility research, provocations such as disability-led prototypes can make visible the able-bodied defaults embedded in mainstream technology and expand how access is imagined beyond checklist compliance.