Designing Superpowers: Investigating the Empowering but also Negative Effects of Human Augmentation

This thesis introduces the concept of “unfortunate superpower experiences”, referring to technical augmentations that offer empowering capabilities while also generating undesirable negative effects. Through three case studies around augmented perception, cognition, and action, this research examines how users experience unfortunate superpowers. The resulting insights are distilled into the Superpower Experience Framework, which articulates the interrelations of embodied awareness, agency, and temporal stability, offering guidance for the design of future superpower experiences.