research-article

Designing web-connected physical artefacts for the 'aesthetic' of the home

Authors:

Giulio Jacucci,

Abigail Sellen,

Richard Harper,

Tim ReganAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 909 - 918

https://doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466117

Published: 27 April 2013 Publication History

Abstract

Web-based technologies are often built to capitalize on the flexibility and fluidity that is supported by the internet, with the value of 'access anywhere' underpinning a blurring of boundaries across home and work. Yet the home is well known in HCI to have a unique set of qualities that can use-fully be drawn upon when designing to support domestic life. In this paper we ask what it means to design domestic web-connected technologies, placing the aesthetic and material properties intrinsic to the home and home life at the centre of our design exploration. We present three concepts that were selected and prototyped from a broader process of research-through-design: Tokens of Search provides tangible handles to web resources; Hole in Space connects the home intimately to a remote place; and Manhattan enables the tangible exploration of events in the community, putting the home at the centre. Discussions in the paper consider not only how aesthetics is articulated in the material and digital properties of the artefacts, but also how a consideration of the properties of the home can create a potentially new design space to explore.

References

[1]

Audi, R. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.

[2]

Binder, T., Ehn, P., De Michelis, G., Jacucci, G., Linde, P., and Wagner, I. Design Things. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2011.

[3]

Blythe, M. Pastiche scenarios. Interactions 11, 5 (2004), 51--53.

Digital Library

[4]

Bødker, S. When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges. In Proc. Nordic CHI '06, (2006), 1--8.

Digital Library

[5]

Brown, B., Taylor, A., Izadi, S., Sellen, A., and Kaye, J. Locating family values: A field trial of the Whereabouts Clock. Springer-Verlag, Germany, 2007.

[6]

Crabtree, A. and Rodden, T. Domestic Routines and Design for the Home. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 13, 2 (2004), 191--220.

Digital Library

[7]

Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Rochberg-Halton, E. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. Cambridge University Press, 1981.

[8]

Djajadiningrat, J. P., Gaver, W. W., and Fres, J. W. Interaction relabelling and extreme characters. In Proc. DIS'00, (2000), 66--71.

Digital Library

[9]

Gaver, W., Blythe, M., Boucher, A., Jarvis, N., Bowers, J., and Wright, P. The prayer companion: openness and specificity, materiality and spirituality. In Proc. CHI '10, (2010), 2055--2064.

Digital Library

[10]

Gaver, W., Wright, P., Boucher, A., et al. The photostroller: supporting diverse care home residents in engaging with the world. In Proc. CHI '11, (2011), 1757--1766.

Digital Library

[11]

Goffman, E. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Northeastern University Press, USA, 1974.

[12]

Hallnäs, L. and Redström, J. From use to presence: on the expressions and aesthetics of everyday computational things. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 9, 2 (2002), 106--124.

Digital Library

[13]

Hardy, R., Rukzio, E., Holleis, P., and Wagner, M. MyState: sharing social and contextual information through touch interactions with tagged objects. In Proc. MobileHCI '11, (2011), 475--484.

Digital Library

[14]

Harper, R. From Smart Home to Connected Home. In R. Harper, ed., The Connected Home: The Future of Domestic Life. Springer London, London, 2011, 3--18.

[15]

Hindus, D. The Importance of Homes in Technology Research. In N. A. Streitz, J. Siegel, V. Hartkopf and S. Konomi, eds., Cooperative Buildings. Integrating Information, Organizations, and Architecture. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1999, 199--207.

Digital Library

[16]

Hutchinson, H., Mackay, W., Westerlund, B., et al. Technology probes: inspiring design for and with families. In Proc. CHI '03, (2003), 17--24.

Digital Library

[17]

Jacucci, G. and Wagner, I. Performative roles of materiality for collective creativity. In Proc. C&C '07, (2007), 73--82.

Digital Library

[18]

Kellar, M., Watters, C., and Shepherd, M. A field study characterizing Web-based information-seeking tasks. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58, 7 (2007), 999--1018.

Digital Library

[19]

Leonardi, C., Mennecozzi, C., Not, E., et al. Knocking on elders' door. In Proc. CHI'09, (2009), 1703--1712.

Digital Library

[20]

Lindley, S., Meek, S., Sellen, A., and Harper, R. "It's Simply Integral to What I do": Enquiries into how the Web is Weaved into Everyday Life. In Proc. WWW '12, (2012), 1067--1076.

Digital Library

[21]

Ljungstrand, P., Redström, J., and Holmquist, L. E. WebStickers: Using Physical Tokens to Access, Manage and Share Bookmarks to the Web. In Proc. DARE '00, (2000), 23--31.

Digital Library

[22]

Maekawa, T., Yanagisawa, Y., Sakurai, Y., Kishino, Y., Kamei, K., and Okadome, T. Context-aware web search in ubiquitous sensor environments. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology 11, 3 (2012), 1--23.

Digital Library

[23]

Mattelmäki, T. Design Probes. 2006.

[24]

Miller, D. The comfort of things. Polity, Cambridge; Malden, MA, 2008.

[25]

Miller, D. Stuff. Polity Press, Cambridge, 2010.

[26]

Nylander, S., Lundquist, T., and Brännström, A. At home and with computer access: why and where people use cell phones to access the internet. In Proc. CHI '09, (2009), 1639--1642.

Digital Library

[27]

Odom, W., Banks, R., Kirk, D., Harper, R., Lindley, S., and Sellen, A. Technology heirlooms? Considerations for Passing Down and Inheriting Digital Materials. In Proc. CHI'12, (2012), 337.

Digital Library

[28]

Odom, W., Sellen, A., Harper, R., and Thereska, E. Lost in translation: understanding the possession of digital things in the cloud. In Proc. CHI'12, (2012), 781--790.

Digital Library

[29]

Petersen, M. G., Iversen, O. S., Krogh, P. G., and Ludvigsen, M. Aesthetic interaction. In Proc. DIS'04, (2004), 269--274.

Digital Library

[30]

Postrel, V. The Substance of style: how the rise of aesthetic value is remaking commerce, culture, and consciousness. Harper Perennial, New York, 2004.

[31]

Rattenbury, T., Nafus, D., and Anderson, K. Plastic: A Metaphor for Integrated Technologies. In Proc. UbiComp'08, (2008), 232.

Digital Library

[32]

Sellen, A., Eardley, R., Izadi, S., and Harper, R. The whereabouts clock: early testing of a situated awareness device. In CHI'06 Ext. Abst., (2006), 1307--1312.

Digital Library

[33]

Sellen, A. J., Murphy, R., and Shaw, K. L. How knowledge workers use the web. In Proc. CHI'02, (2002), 227--234.

Digital Library

[34]

Spindler, M. Spatially aware tangible display interaction in a tabletop environment. In Proc. ITS'12, (2012), 277.

Digital Library

[35]

Surie, D., Pederson, T., and Janlert, L.-E. The easy ADL home: A physical-virtual approach to domestic living. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments 2, 3 (2010), 287--310.

Digital Library

[36]

Taylor, A. S., Harper, R., Swan, L., Izadi, S., Sellen, A., and Perry, M. Homes that make us smart. Personal Ubiquitous Comput. 11, 5 (2007), 383--393.

Digital Library

[37]

Venkatesh, A. Computers and other interactive technologies for the home. Communications of the ACM 39, 12 (1996), 47--54.

Digital Library

[38]

Weiser, M. The computer for the 21st century. Scientific American, September (1991), 94--104.

[39]

Ylirisku, S. and Buur, J. Designing with Video: Focusing the user-centred design process. Springer, 2007.

Digital Library

[40]

Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J., and Evenson, S. Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI. In Proc. CHI'07, (2007), 493--502.

Digital Library

Cited By

Odom WWhite JBarnett SBrand NLin HYoo MAmram T(2024)Capra: Making Use of Multiple Perspectives for Capturing, Noticing and Revisiting Hiking Experiences Over TimeProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642284(1-27)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642284
Kim DJang SKim BPark Y(2022)Design and Field Trial of Lumino in Homes: Supporting Reflective Life by Archiving and Showing Daily Moods with Light ColorsProceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3532106.3533465(1715-1728)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3532106.3533465
Menheere Dvan Hartingsveldt EBirkebæk MVos SLallemand C(2021)Laina: Dynamic Data Physicalization for Slow Exercising FeedbackProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462041(1015-1030)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461778.3462041
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Designing web-connected physical artefacts for the 'aesthetic' of the home
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

Recommendations

Designing the Desirable Smart Home: A Study of Household Experiences and Energy Consumption Impacts
CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Research has shown that desirable designs shape the use and experiences people have when interacting with technology. Nevertheless, how desirability influences energy consumption is often overlooked, particularly in HCI studies evaluating the ...
Investigating Genres and Perspectives in HCI Research on the Home
CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

The home and domestic experiences have been studied from multiple points of view and disciplines, with an array of methodologies in the past twenty-five years in HCI. Given the attention to the home and the volume of research, what further areas of ...
Designing 'True Colors': A Social Wearable that Affords Vulnerability
CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Vulnerability is a common experience in everyday life and is frequently perceived as a flaw to be excised in technology design. Yet, research indicates it is an essential aspect of wholehearted living among others. In this paper, we present the design ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2013

3550 pages

ISBN:9781450318990

DOI:10.1145/2470654

General Chair:
Wendy E. Mackay
INRIA
,
Program Chairs:
Stephen Brewster
Glasgow University
,
Susanne Bødker
University of Aarhus

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 April 2013

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

CHI '13

Sponsor:

SIGCHI

CHI '13: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 27 - May 2, 2013

Paris, France

Acceptance Rates

CHI '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 392 of 1,963 submissions, 20%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

Upcoming Conference

CHI '25

Sponsor:
sigchi

CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

23
Total Citations
View Citations
654
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)38
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)8

Reflects downloads up to 21 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Odom WWhite JBarnett SBrand NLin HYoo MAmram T(2024)Capra: Making Use of Multiple Perspectives for Capturing, Noticing and Revisiting Hiking Experiences Over TimeProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642284(1-27)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642284
Kim DJang SKim BPark Y(2022)Design and Field Trial of Lumino in Homes: Supporting Reflective Life by Archiving and Showing Daily Moods with Light ColorsProceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3532106.3533465(1715-1728)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3532106.3533465
Menheere Dvan Hartingsveldt EBirkebæk MVos SLallemand C(2021)Laina: Dynamic Data Physicalization for Slow Exercising FeedbackProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462041(1015-1030)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461778.3462041
Lazzarini VKeller D(2020)Editors' Notes: Geysers, Bacteria, Electricity, and a Flippin' PompomComputer Music Journal10.1162/comj_e_0054944:1(6-16)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2020
https://doi.org/10.1162/comj_e_00549
Lee KJu SDzhoroev TGoh GLee MPark YWakkary RAndersen KOdom WDesjardins APetersen M(2020)DayCloProceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3357236.3395439(1793-1806)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395439
Odom WWakkary RHol JNaus BVerburg PAmram TChen ABrewster SFitzpatrick GCox AKostakos V(2019)Investigating Slowness as a Frame to Design Longer-Term Experiences with Personal DataProceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3290605.3300264(1-16)Online publication date: 2-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290605.3300264
Durrant AKirk DTrujillo-Pisanty DMartindale SMandryk RHancock MPerry MCox A(2018)Admixed PortraitProceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3173574.3173586(1-14)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3173574.3173586
Güldenpfennig FFernaeus YMcMillan DJonsson MGirouard ATholander J(2018)Tailor-made Accessible ComputersProceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3173225.3173237(231-236)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3173225.3173237
Zhang JPurgathofer PBrereton MFitzpatrick GGüldenpfennig FFoth MJu WSchroeter RViller S(2016)Handle the WayProceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems10.1145/2908805.2909403(117-120)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2908805.2909403
Ylirisku SJylhä ALehtiö AAhmed IStewart CSellen AHarper RJacucci GFoth MJu WSchroeter RViller S(2016)Designing for Active Place Presence at HomeProceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems10.1145/2901790.2901884(1341-1352)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2901790.2901884
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents