research-article

Practices as a unit of design: An exploration of theoretical guidelines in a study on bathing

Authors:

Lenneke Kuijer,

Annelise de Jong,

Daan van EijkAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Volume 20, Issue 4

Article No.: 21, Pages 1 - 22

https://doi.org/10.1145/2493382

Published: 19 September 2013 Publication History

Abstract

The sustainability challenges facing society today require approaches that look beyond single product-user interactions. Focusing on socially shared practices—e.g. cooking, laundering—has been identified as a promising direction. Building on a growing body of research in sustainable HCI that takes practices as unit of analysis, this article explores what it means to take practices as a unit of design. Drawing on theories of practice, it proposes that practice-oriented design approaches should: involve bodily performance, create crises of routine and generate a variety of performances. These guidelines were integrated into a Generative Improv Performances (GIP) approach, entailing a series of performances by improvisation actors with low-fidelity prototypes in a lab environment. The approach was implemented in an empirical study on bathing. Although the empirical example does not deal with common types of interactive technologies, the guidelines and GIP approach offer sustainable HCI a way to think beyond immediate interactions and to conceptualize change on a practice level.

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Cited By

Secher KJensen VJensen ROvergaard MChristiansen I(2024)A Case Study of Situating Energy Temporality towards Designing for Communal EnergyProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685484(1-11)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
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Index Terms

Practices as a unit of design: An exploration of theoretical guidelines in a study on bathing
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Volume 20, Issue 4

Special issue on practice-oriented approaches to sustainable HCI

September 2013

156 pages

ISSN:1073-0516

EISSN:1557-7325

DOI:10.1145/2509404

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Copyright © 2013 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 19 September 2013

Accepted: 01 June 2013

Revised: 01 January 2013

Received: 01 April 2012

Published in TOCHI Volume 20, Issue 4

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685484
Kuijer Lde Koning PCiolfi LHogan TDöring TJenkins Tvan Dijk JHuron SLi ZCoyle DSigner B(2024)Feeling the Heat: Uncomfortable Design Fictions for Alternative Forms of Summer ComfortProceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3623509.3633391(1-15)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623509.3633391
Jensen VLaursen KJensen RSmith R(2024)Imagining Sustainable Energy Communities: Design Narratives of Future Digital Technologies, Sites, and ParticipationProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642609(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642609
van Beek EBoess SBozzon AGiaccardi E(2024)Practice reconfigurations around heat pumps in and beyond Dutch householdsEnvironmental Innovation and Societal Transitions10.1016/j.eist.2024.10090353(100903)Online publication date: Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2024.100903
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