Abstract
This study examines critical feedback shared by arts festival participants on social media. These posts, as a unique form of reflective user experience data, can spark dialogue and spread widely, helping to identify potential needs and key service touchpoints in the design of cultural and creative activities. Using purposive sampling, 104 relevant posts were collected and analysed thematically based on Buchanan’s four orders of design as a framework. The findings indicate that participant discontent stems from overlapping conflicts across different design orders, characterised by a lack of authenticity, value conflicts, and service limitations. Furthermore, the study emphasises the pivotal mediating role of creators in reconciling these orders, offering empirical insights for the experience design of cultural and creative activities.
Keywords
art festivals, online critical feedback, four orders of design, touchpoints
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2270
Citation
Ye, W., Siu, K., Jiang, Y., and Jian, I. (2026) From discontent to touchpoints: Analysing art festival experience design through participants’ critical feedback on social media, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2270
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
From discontent to touchpoints: Analysing art festival experience design through participants’ critical feedback on social media
This study examines critical feedback shared by arts festival participants on social media. These posts, as a unique form of reflective user experience data, can spark dialogue and spread widely, helping to identify potential needs and key service touchpoints in the design of cultural and creative activities. Using purposive sampling, 104 relevant posts were collected and analysed thematically based on Buchanan’s four orders of design as a framework. The findings indicate that participant discontent stems from overlapping conflicts across different design orders, characterised by a lack of authenticity, value conflicts, and service limitations. Furthermore, the study emphasises the pivotal mediating role of creators in reconciling these orders, offering empirical insights for the experience design of cultural and creative activities.