Intimacy is a crucial element of domestic life, and many interactive technologies designed for other purposes have been appropriated for use within intimate relationships. However, there is a deficit in current understandings of how technologies are used within intimate relationships, and how to design technologies to support intimate acts. In this paper we report on work that has addressed these deficits. We used cultural probes and contextual interviews and other ethnographically informed techniques to investigate how interactive technologies are used within intimate relationships. From this empirical work we generated a thematic understanding of intimacy and the use of interactional technologies to support intimate acts. We used this understanding to inform the design of intimate technologies. A selection of our design concepts is also presented.

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Mediating intimacy: designing technologies to support strong-tie relationships

https://casci.umd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SociotechnicalsystemsFromdesignmethodstosystemsengineering-BaxterSommerville.pdf

Socio-technical systems: From design methods to systems engineering

Conceptions of the Home.- Inside the Smart Home: Ideas, Possibilities and Methods.- Conceptions of the Home.- Smart Homes: Past, Present and Future.- Households as Morally Ordered Communities: Explorations in the Dynamics of Domestic Life.- Time as a Rare Commodity in Home Life.- Emotional Context and "Significancies" of Media.- Designing for the Home.- Paper-mail in the Home of the 21st Century.- Switching On to Switch Off.- The Social Context of Home Computing.- Design with Care: Technology, Disability and the Home.- The Home of the Future.- Towards the Unremarkable Computer: Making Technology at Home in Domestic Routine.- Daily Routines and Means of Communication in a Smart Home.- Living Inside a Smart Home: A Case Study.- Smart Home, Dumb Suppliers? The Future of Smart Homes Markets.

Inside the Smart Home

We trace how cultural probes have been adopted and adapted by the HCI community. The flexibility of probes has been central to their uptake, resulting in a proliferation of divergent uses and derivatives. The varying patterns of adaptation of the probes reveal important underlying issues in HCI, suggesting underacknowledged disagreements about valid interpretation and the relationship between methods and their underlying methodology. With this analysis, we aim to clarify discussions around probes, and, more importantly, around how we define and evaluate methods in HCI, especially those grounded in unfamiliar conceptions of how research should be done.

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How HCI interprets the probes

DESPITE THE RECENT DRAMATIC TRENDS IN THE DIFfusion of information technology, the significance of these developments is still not clear. Also lacking is a critical understanding of these developments and a sound theoretical and empirical base from which to observe and analyze them. Supporting such an analysis, this article raises both empirical and theoretical concerns in an attempt to capture the structure and dynamics of computer adoption and use in the home. Computers and Other Interactive Technologies for the Home A l l a d i V e n k a t e s h

Computers and other interactive technologies for the home : The Internet @ home

We report on the methodological process of developing computer support for former psychiatric patients living in residential care settings, for older members of the community, and disabled people living at home. Methods for identifying user needs in such sensitive settings are underdeveloped and the situation presents a very complex set of design challenges. In particular, the highly personal character of such settings presents conventional observational techniques, such as ethnography, with obdurate problems that make direct observation intrusive, disruptive and inappropriate on occasion. Direct observation requires supplementation in sensitive settings. Accordingly, we report on our experiences of adapting Cultural Probes to explore care settings, to develop a design dialogue with participants, and to gather information about their unique needs.

/pdf/designing-with-care-adapting-cultural-probes-to-inform-v8r3osb32p.pdf

Designing with Care: Adapting Cultural Probes to Inform Design in Sensitive Settings

Social theories are usually developed to enable a clearer understanding of a situation or problem. The ‘Social Model’ in various forms is currently the dominant model for researching disability, addressing disability from within a socio‐political framework that draws substantially on a ‘social constructionist’ perspective. This article critiques some of the core sociological assumptions of the Social Model, questioning what ‘work’ this kind of theory does in informing a set of practical concerns around the design of assistive technologies, suggesting an alternative framework of analysis, supported by extensive ethnomethodologically informed ethnographic research

/pdf/the-anti-social-model-of-disability-1afqwa5ndy.pdf

The anti-social model of disability

Nursing and information and communication technology (ICT): A discussion of trends and future directions

Background
There is growing interest in assisted living technologies to support independence at home. Such technologies should ideally be designed ‘in the wild’ i.e. taking account of how real people live in real homes and communities. The ATHENE (Assistive Technologies for Healthy Living in Elders: Needs Assessment by Ethnography) project seeks to illuminate the living needs of older people and facilitate the co-production with older people of technologies and services. This paper describes the development of a cultural probe tool produced as part of the ATHENE project and how it was used to support home visit interviews with elders with a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, family circumstances, health conditions and assisted living needs.

/pdf/designing-assisted-living-technologies-in-the-wild-4v1azqxwrh.pdf

Designing assisted living technologies 'in the wild' : preliminary experiences with cultural probe methodology

This paper considers the main aspects and questions that are required to be asked by any designer of residences that include technology designed to support the lives of disabled people. It seeks to reframe the design process to extend the concepts of 'inclusive' and 'universal' design within the social context of designing for people with a wide range of disabilities. Designing 'smart homes' or homes that contain elements of 'smart home' technology for disabled or older people is not different from designing the home for people without any form of impairment on the one hand. On the other hand, there is a perceptual shift that is required in order to ensure needs are met from all stakeholders. There is a need to determine the needs of the occupant(s) and reflect these needs within the overall design. This paper addresses the main questions that arise from the design process as well as discuss the role of cultural probes in enhancing the design.

/pdf/designing-acceptable-smart-home-technology-to-support-people-2fpa8uxxe8.pdf

Guy Dewsbury

Papers

Designing with Care: Adapting Cultural Probes to Inform Design in Sensitive Settings

The anti-social model of disability

Nursing and information and communication technology (ICT): A discussion of trends and future directions

Designing assisted living technologies 'in the wild' : preliminary experiences with cultural probe methodology

Designing acceptable ‘smart’ home technology to support people in the home