Hostile Design

A design orientation in which systems — physical, digital, or bureaucratic — are intentionally configured to deter use, discourage certain populations, or reduce uptake, rather than to enable access. Originally applied to urban features like anti-homeless benches and spikes, the concept has been extended to welfare and public-service systems whose forms, phone queues, reassessments, and appeal processes function as deliberate friction. For disabled users, hostile design manifests as deliberately confusing rules, demoralising assessments, lost paperwork, and obfuscated eligibility criteria that suppress claim success.