Interaction Ecologies

• In this paper we present one approach to understand palpability from the perspective of eco-systems of palpable devices. We will introduce the notion of Palpable Interaction Ecology that particular focus upon the properties that emerge from the interaction between people, their practices and palpable devices. This approach is derived from research into the use of pervasive healthcare services that support women during their pregnancies. This is a situation where information is currently distributed among many parties. This makes it very difficult for the pregnant woman to assess her situation. To address these issues we have designed digital artifacts that support the pregnant women’s information management as well as facilitating the interaction with healthcare providers. The concepts have been examined using workshops, user scenarios and low-fidelity prototyping through active participation of both healthcare personnel and pregnant women. The results of this work suggest that the proposed concepts have the potential to be incorporated both in healthcare and in the household routines if particular focus is given to understanding shifting needs and uses over time. Visibility and invisibility, construction and de-construction, and supporting people in making computing palpable are among the important challenges facing the Palcom Project. Originating from the biology field, an ecology is often used to illustrate relations between an organism and the surrounding environment. We have in our case found a similar need to describe diversity in use situation and the interaction between invisible and visible information as well as the interaction of construction and de-construction of devices and data. A Palpable interaction ecology incorporates both a pervasive computing presence and the ability to add and subtract devices and data as desired. The ecology notion offers here an analysis unit of properties that emerge from the interaction between people and palpable services and devices. It is argued that by study how these ecologies emerged we could create a new understanding of palpable interaction and the making of palpable computing.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Människa-datorinteraktion (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Human Computer Interaction (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

interaction

ecology

Palpability

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)