1st Edition

Expressive Iteration Designing for Meaningful Routines

By Kenny K.N. Chow Copyright 2025
268 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

268 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

268 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

A ground-breaking guide to thinking about how routine activities can be designed and innovated to develop narrative meaning and a sense of purpose. Iteration is an integral part of daily routines, such as sleep-wake cycles, commuting, workouts, chores, or practising an instrument. While many iterations just monotonously repeat, others can lead to progression or evolution. With subtle variations... Read more

1. Introduction

 Part I - Theory

2. Persuasion Through Processes and Outcomes

3. Imagination Across Reality and Fiction

4. Connection With New Interpretation

Part II - Case Study

5. Iteration of Events

6. Iteration of Stories

7. Iteration of Variants

Part III - Design

8. Crafting Expressive Routines

9. Post-Reality

Biography

Kenny K.N. Chow is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University. His book, Animation, Embodiment, and Digital Media: Human Experience of Technological Liveliness, was selected as the Outstanding Book by the Korea Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2021.

“Life is based in habits. How are they formed? How can you get good ones? Chow shows how to use variation within repetition to turn routines into sustaining concepts of self and expression. He guides readers through tools of blending, narrative, mixed reality, and artificial intelligence to change mundane patterns into meaningful lives.”

Mark Turner, author of The Origin of Ideas: Blending, Creativity, and the Human Spark.

“In this well-written, entertaining and inspiring book, Chow presents his carefully developed and tested concept of expressive iteration, which relies on the blending of the mundane routine with imaginative, self-gratifying and appealing narratives. This blending process inspires the design of persuasive technologies that are truly useful to turn repetitive actions into joyful steps that help people achieve their long-term goals. The process proposed is illustrated on numerous examples, making the book an enjoyable and stimulating read.”

Kerstin Fischer, Professor for Language and Technology Interaction, University of Southern Denmark.

“Chow travels through a sprawling universe of examples reaching from Japanese woodblock prints to exercise apps. Along this journey, he dissects media for their underlying iterative action design. It is an investigation into the power of these repeating routines. How does iteration affect our storytelling? Our calendars? Our daily workout? Chow makes us look (and look again) at the possibilities for designing daily chores and behaviors as he re-imagines speculative variants of these routines and traces how they might shape our life.”

Michael Nitsche, Professor of Digital Media, Georgia Tech.

“Chow's Expressive Iteration makes a provocative intervention in the ways in which we understand our daily routines. Demonstrating innovative ways of transforming mundane routines into compelling narratives, Chow shows us how to find renewed enthusiasm for that which we must do.”

Grant Hamilton, Associate Professor of English Literature, Chinese University of Hong Kong.