Environment interaction: character, challenges & implications for design

ABSTRACT

With the current development towards completely interactive environments realized through ubiquitous computing technologies and new transmaterials, the interaction landscape is changing from consisting of separated computer environments and related human-computer interaction issues, to being more about interactive architecture and human- (digitally enhanced) environment interaction. Given this general shift it becomes important to examine the fundamental challenges, consequences, and implications for design facing interaction designers. In this paper we therefore set out to: 1) describe the general character of these future interactive environments, 2) discuss interaction design challenges related to fully interactive environments, and 3) point at some general implications for design given this new understanding. To exemplify this trend, we describe two ongoing research projects that illustrate some aspects of the changes of the physical environment and changes in the (traditional) relation between the physical environment and its habitants. Finally, we present some arguments for environment interaction theorizing as a fundamental approach to tackle this general and fundamental challenge for the field of human-computer interaction.

REFERENCES

• 1: Emile Aarts, Ambient intelligence drives open innovation, interactions, v.12 n.4, July + August 2005 [doi>10.1145/1070960.1070996]
• 2: Bechtel, R & Churchman, (2002) Handbook of Environmental Psychology, Cloth. Wiley, New York, USA.
• 3: Bell, P. (2001) Environmental Psychology, Thomson Learning, Texas, USA
• 4: Benyon, D., Turner, S., Turner, P. (2004) Designing Interactive Systems, Pearson Higher Education, USA.
• 5: Hugh Beyer, Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1997
• 6: Lucy Bullivant, 4dspace: Interactive Architecture (Architectural Design), John Wiley & Sons, 2005
• 7: Bullivant, L. (2006) Responsive environments -- Architecture, Art and Design, V & A Publications.
• 8: Borgmann, A. (1999). Holding on to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millenium. Chicago Press.
• 9: Brownell, B. (2006) Transmaterial -- A catalog of materials that redefine our physical environment, Princeton Architectural Press.
• 10: Croon Fors, A. (2006). Being with technology -- critical explorations beyond use and design. Ph.D Thesis. Umeå University. Department of informatics.
• 11: Sajal K. Das , Diane J. Cook, Designing and Modeling Smart Environments (Invited Paper), Proceedings of the 2006 International Symposium on on World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, p.490-494, June 26-29, 2006 [doi>10.1109/WOWMOM.2006.35]
• 12: Fallman, D. (2003) In Romance with the Materials of Mobile Interaction: A Phenomenological Approach to the Design of Mobile Information Technology, Doctoral Thesis, ISSN 1401-4572, RR.03-04, ISBN 91-7305-578-6, Umea University, Sweden: Larsson & Co:s Tryckeri.
• 13: Alfonso Gárate , Nati Herrasti , Antonio López, GENIO: an ambient intelligence application in home automation and entertainment environment, Proceedings of the 2005 joint conference on Smart objects and ambient intelligence: innovative context-aware services: usages and technologies, October 12-14, 2005, Grenoble, France [doi>10.1145/1107548.1107609]
• 14: Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books.
• 15: Gold, J. (1993) Ways of Seeing: Exploring Media Landscapes through a Field-Based Simulation., Journal of Geography, v92 n5 p213--16 Sep-Oct 1993.
• 16: Adam Greenfield, Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, Peachpit Press, Berkeley, CA, 2006
• 17: Bill Hill, Embodied interaction, ACM SIGGRAPH 2002 conference abstracts and applications, July 21-26, 2002, San Antonio, Texas [doi>10.1145/1242073.1242191]
• 18: Quentin Jones , Sukeshini A. Grandhi , Steve Whittaker , Keerti Chivakula , Loren Terveen, Putting systems into place: a qualitative study of design requirements for location-aware community systems, Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, November 06-10, 2004, Chicago, Illinois, USA [doi>10.1145/1031607.1031640]
• 19: Eva Hornecker , Jacob Buur, Getting a grip on tangible interaction: a framework on physical space and social interaction, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124838]
• 20: Kolarevic, B. (2003) Architecture in the digital age -- Design and manufacturing, Taylor & Francis.
• 21: Krippendorff, K. (2006) The Semantic Turn -- A new foundation for design. Boca Raton: CRC/Taylor & Francis
• 22: Menno Lindwer , Diana Marculescu , Twan Basten , Rainer Zimmermann , Radu Marculescu , Stefan Jung , Eugenio Cantatore, Ambient Intelligence Visions and Achievements: Linking Abstract Ideas to Real-World Concepts, Proceedings of the conference on Design, Automation and Test in Europe, p.10010, March 03-07, 2003
• 23: John McCarthy , Peter Wright, Technology as Experience, The MIT Press, 2004
• 24: Malcolm McCullough, Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004
• 25: Claudio S. Pinhanez , Aaron F. Bobick, Interval scripts: a programming paradigm for interactive environments and agents, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, v.7 n.1, p.1-21, May 2003 [doi>10.1007/s00779-002-0209-4]
• 26: Rogers, Y. (2006) Moving on from Weiser's Vision of Calm Computing: Engaging UbiComp Experiences, P. Dourish and A. Friday (Eds.): Ubicomp 2006, LNCS 4206, pp. 404--421, 2006, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
• 27: Shaun, M. (2005) Media Theory - Thinking about media and communications, Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• 28: Frank Siegemund , Christian Floerkemeier , Harald Vogt, The value of handhelds in smart environments, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, v.9 n.2, p.69-80, March 2005 [doi>10.1007/s00779-004-0311-x]
• 29: Spiller, N. (2002) Reflexive Architecture, Wiley-Academy.
• 30: Stephenson, N. (1992). Snow Crash. Bantam Books.
• 31: Truax, B (1996) Soundscape, acoustic communication and environmental sound composition, Contemporary Music Review, Taylor & Francis.
• 32: Weiser, M. (1991). The computer of the 21st century, Scientific American, 265(3):66--75, September 1991.
• 33: Wiberg, M. (2005) An Architecturally Situated Approach to Place-based Mobile Interaction Design, Presented at the "Location Awareness & Community" workshop at the 9th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW '05).
• 34: Wiberg, M. (2006) Graceful Interaction In Intelligent Environments, in proceedings of the International Symposium on Intelligent Environments, 5--7 April, Cambridge.
• 35: Mary Zajicek, Web 2.0: hype or happiness?, Proceedings of the 2007 international cross-disciplinary conference on Web accessibility (W4A), May 07-08, 2007, Banff, Canada [doi>10.1145/1243441.1243453]
• 36: Peter Zellner, Hybrid Space: Generative Form and Digital Architecture, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1999

INDEX TERMS

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

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

General Terms:
Human Factors

Keywords:
environment interaction, human-environment interaction, interactive architecture