Laurel M. Swan

Artful systems in the home

In this paper we introduce the idea of organizing systems. Through a number of examples from an ongoing ethnographic study of family life, we suggest that organizing systems come about through the artful design and use of informational artifacts in the home, such as calendars, paper notes, to-do lists, etc. These systems are not only seen to organize household routines and schedules, but also, crucially, to shape the social relations between family members. Drawing attention to the material properties of informational artifacts and how assemblies of these artifacts come to make up organizing systems, we discuss some general implications for designing information technology for the home. Most importantly, we suggest that technologies must be designed to accommodate the rich and diverse ways in which people organize their homes, providing them with the resources to artfully construct their own systems rather than enforcing ones that are removed from their own experiences.

Driving and 'Passengering': Notes on the Ordinary Organization of Car Travel

We spend ever‐increasing periods of our lives travelling in cars, yet quite what it is we do while travelling, aside from driving the vehicle itself, is largely overlooked. Drawing on analyses of video records of a series of quite ordinary episodes of car travel, in this paper we begin to document what happens during car journeys. The material concentrates on situations where people are travelling together in order to examine how social units such as families or relationships such as colleagues or friends are re‐assembled and re‐organised in the small‐scale spaces that are car interiors. Particular attention is paid to the forms of conversation occurring during car journeys and the manner in which they are complicated by seating and visibility arrangements. Finally, the paper touches upon the unusual form of hospitality which emerges in car‐sharing.

Homes that make us smart

In this article we consider what it should mean to build “smartness” or “intelligence” into the home. We introduce an argument suggesting that it is people who imbue their homes with intelligence by continually weaving together things in their physical worlds with their everyday routines and distinct social arrangements. To develop this argument we draw on four ongoing projects concerned with designing interactive surfaces. These projects illustrate how, through the use of surfaces like fridge doors and wall displays, and even bowl shaped surfaces, we keep in touch with one another, keep the sense of our homes intact, and craft our homes as something unique and special. Intelligence, here, is seen to be something that emerges from our interactions with these surfaces—seen in the thoughtful placement of things throughout the home’s ecology of surfaces. IT for the home is thus understood less as something to be designed as intelligent and more as a resource for intelligence.

Making place for clutter and other ideas of home

In this article, we examine the containment of clutter in family homes and, from this, outline considerations for design. Selected materials from an ethnographically informed study of home life are used to detail the ways in which families contain their clutter in bowls and drawers. Clutter, within these containers, is found to be made up of a heterogeneous collection of things that, for all manner of reasons, hold an ambiguous status in the home. It is shown that bowls and drawers provide a “safe” site of containment for clutter, giving the miscellany of content the “space” to be properly dealt with and classified, or to be left unresolved. The shared but idiosyncratic practices families use to contain their clutter are seen to be one of the ways in which the home, or at least the idea of home, is collectively produced. It is also part of the means by which families come to make their homes distinct and unique. These findings are used to consider what it might mean to design for the home, and to do so in ways that are sensitive to the idiosyncratic systems of household organization. In conclusion, thought is given to how we design for peoples ideas of home, and how we might build sites of uncertainty into homes, where physical as well as digital things might coalesce.

Designing family photo displays

We present efforts to explore the relatively underdeveloped area of digital photo display. Using examples from two empirical studies with family homes, we develop our results around three broad themes related to the display of photos and their arrangement. The first theme highlights the collaborative as well as individual work that goes into preparing photos for display. The second attends to the obligations families have to put particular photos on display. The third introduces the notion of curatorial control and the tensions that arise from one person controlling a home!s photo displays. Drawing on these themes, we go on to describe how we have used a critical design approach to open up the possibilities for future display innovations. Three critical design proposals are presented as sketches to illustrate the development of our ideas to date.

Photo displays in the home

This paper examines an under explored area of digital photography, namely photo display. Using examples from a study undertaken with six families, we examine photo displays on mantelpieces, sideboards, and hallway walls, and in homeoffices. Using the examples, we make a case relating to the material properties of photo displays, suggesting that families routinely (and often unintentionally) express something of themselves in the ways they display their photos. The very ideas of family and home, we suggest, are tightly interwoven with the methods of photo display. This position is used to offer up some early design considerations for digital photo displays. We outline some basic properties that might be designed around and contend that the ideas of family and home impose constraints on which of these properties might be best combined and exploited. We also present three design concepts to illustrate how we have been developing this position.

Notes on fridge surfaces

Drawing on ongoing ethnographic investigations into home life, this paper presents detailed findings from a preliminary examination of refrigerator surfaces. The use and organization of items on fridge surfaces are shown to be closely tied to the material properties of both fridges and their surroundings. Emphasis is placed on the importance of fridge magnets as they are seen to contribute to a fluidity and reconfigurability that make fridge surfaces unique. Building on this, it is argued that the negotiation of family relations is afforded by the presented properties of the fridge and of magnets. To conclude, we introduce some general points to consider in designing interactive surfaces for the home.

Speculative devices for photo display

In this paper, we describe three purposefully provocative, digital photo display technologies designed for home settings. The three devices have been built to provoke questions around how digital photographs might be seen and interacted with in novel ways. They are also intended for speculation about the expressive resources afforded by digital technologies for displaying photos. It is hoped interactions with the devices will help researchers and designers reflect on new design possibilities. The devices are also being deployed as part of ongoing home-oriented field research.

Augmenting refrigerator magnets: why less is sometimes more

In this paper we present a number of augmented refrigerator magnet concepts. The concepts are shown to be derived from previous research into the everyday use of fridge surfaces. Three broadly encompassing practices have been addressed through the concepts: (i) organization/planning in households; (ii) reminding; and (iii) methods household members use to assign ownership to particular tasks, activities and artifacts. Particular emphasis is given to a design approach that aims to build on the simplicity of magnets so that each of the concepts offers a basic, simple to operate function. The concepts, and our use of what we call this less is more design sensibility are examined using a low-fidelity prototyping exercise. The results of this preliminary work suggest that the concepts have the potential to be easily incorporated into household routines and that the design of simple functioning devices lends itself to this.

Designs for home life

In this Special Interest Group (SIG) we intend to consider the increasingly popular area of interactive systems design for the home. Aiming to incorporate a wide range of perspectives, the SIGs participants will map out the growing number of research and development programs in the area. Particular emphasis will be given to how home life has been characterized in various programmatic visions and how the CHI community might best capitalize on these characterizations. The importance of an understanding of home life to inform design and future directions in this area will also be reflected on. This SIG is intended to appeal to a broad cross section of the CHI community, ranging from practitioners and developers to computer and social scientists.