Transformative Experience Design

Until now, information and communication technologies have been mostly conceived as a mean to support human activities – communication, productivity, leisure. However, as the sophistication of digital tools increases, researchers are start- ing to consider their potential role in supporting the fullfilment of higher human needs, such as self-actualization and self-transcendence. In this chapter, I introduce Transformative Experience Design (TED), a conceptual framework for exploring how next-generation interactive technologies might be used to support long-lasting changes in the self-world. At the center of this framework is the elicitation of transfor- mative experiences, which are experiences designed to facilitate an epistemic expan- sion through the (controlled) alteration of sensorial, perceptual, cognitive and affec- tive processes.