What if (Everyday) Technologies were Designed for Learning? Towards "Support for Learning" as a Design Goal for Every(day) Technology

What if everyday technologies were designed for productivity and learning? This is critical in the era of generative artificial intelligence and pervasive digital technologies, where technology design substantially shapes what and how humans are learning. This paper introduces “support for learning” as an explicit design goal for everyday technologies. To provide background, we first differentiate four relationships between learning and technology: (1) learning to use technology, (2) learning about technology, (3) learning as a primary design goal, and (4) learning through technology. Designers can intentionally facilitate the latter (a) by following established design principles for usability and user experience, but need to go beyond such known ground by (b) identifying potential learning goals, and (c) connecting to high-quality learning resources and technology designed from within the system. A future research agenda should investigate the relationships between patterns of technology design, patterns of technology use, and learning.