Designing culturally situated technologies for the home

ABSTRACT

As digital technologies proliferate in the home, the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community has turned its attention from the workplace and productivity tools towards domestic design environments and non-utilitarian activities. In the workplace, applications tend to focus on productivity and efficiency and involve relatively well-understood requirements and methodologies, but in domestic design environments we are faced with the need to support new classes of activities. While usability is still central to the field, HCI is beginning to address considerations such as pleasure, fun, emotional effect, aesthetics, the experience of use, and the social and cultural impacts of new technologies. These considerations are particularly relevant to the home, where technologies are situated or embedded within an ecology that is rich with meaning and nuance.The aim of this workshop is to explore ways of designing domestic technology by incorporating an awareness of cultural context, accrued social meanings, and user experience.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
          Subjects: Human factors

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.m Miscellaneous
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Theory and methods; User-centered design
      H.5.m Miscellaneous

  J. Computer Applications
  J.7 COMPUTERS IN OTHER SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Consumer products

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.m Miscellaneous

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Theory

Keywords:
cross-cultural design, cultural studies, domestic technology, ethnography, home, social meaning of technology, user experience