The Serendipity card set is a practical design tool that helps you think about how to design for serendipity: unexpected but valuable discoveries of ideas, information, people, or possibilities.
The card set is based on academic research into affordances for serendipity: the idea that you cannot force serendipity, but you can design environments that make it more likely to happen. The Serendipity card set starts from three overarching design principles that can support serendipity:
- Diversifiability
variety, heterogeneity, unexpected combinations - Traversability
movement, detours, alternative routes, intersections - Sensoriability
stimuli, contrasts, signals, details
The Serendipity cards are context-independent. This means that they can be used for designing digital, physical, or organisational contexts. The cards can be used, for example, for designing a website interface or the layout of a public space, but also in an educational context to critically reflect on design.
