Marianne Graves Petersen

Aesthetic interaction: a pragmatist's aesthetics of interactive systems

There is a growing interest in considering aesthetic aspects in the design of interactive systems. A set of approaches are emerging each representing different applications of the terminology as well as different inherent assumptions on the role of the user, designer and interaction ideals. In this paper, we use the concept of Pragmatist Aesthetics to provide a framework for distinguishing between different approaches to aesthetics. Moreover, we use our own design cases to illustrate how pragmatist aesthetics is a promising path to follow in the context of designing interactive systems, as it promotes aesthetics of use, rather than aesthetics of appearance. We coin this approach in the perspective of aesthetic interaction. Finally we make the point that aesthetics is not re-defining everything known about interactive systems. We provide a framework placing this perspective among other perspectives on interaction.

Shape-changing interfaces: a review of the design space and open research questions

Shape change is increasingly used in physical user interfaces, both as input and output. Yet, the progress made and the key research questions for shape-changing interfaces are rarely analyzed systematically. We review a sample of existing work on shape-changing interfaces to address these shortcomings. We identify eight types of shape that are transformed in various ways to serve both functional and hedonic design purposes. Interaction with shape-changing interfaces is simple and rarely merges input and output. Three questions are discussed based on the review: (a) which design purposes may shape-changing interfaces be used for, (b) which parts of the design space are not well understood, and (c) why studying user experience with shape-changing interfaces is important.

Creativity, cooperation and interactive design

This paper focuses on ways and means of stimulating idea generation in collaborative situations involving designers, engineers, software developers, users and usability people. Particularly, we investigate tools of design, i.e. tools used in design to get ideas for a new interactive application and its use. Based on different studies from a research project that we have been involved with over the past three years, we present specific examples of such tools and discuss how they inform design. We frame this discussion through the following (theoretical) considerations: a concern for the past and the present in informing design, for using theory as a source of inspiration in design and for making extremes and multiple voices play a role in innovation. These considerations are used to structure and discuss the examples, illustrating how it is important for such tools to be concrete, tangible and even caricatured.

Squeeze: designing for playful experiences among co-located people in homes

Squeeze is a multi-person, flexible and interactive furniture that allows for collective and playful exploration of the family history among co-located people in homes. It is designed to explore how we can use digital technology to create settings where co-located family members can collectively and actively engage in playful activities as part of their everyday lives at home. It is argued that this is for the most part an unexplored design space, which is awaiting the interest of the CHI community. Our work has both a strategic and theoretical outset. It is designed from a strategic point to open up the design space for digital domestic technology emphasizing the potential in designing for playful experiences among co-located family members. Secondly, it is designed from a theoretical perspective, namely that of designing for playfulness and aesthetics of interaction.

Remarkable computing: the challenge of designing for the home

The vision of ubiquitous computing is floating into the domain of the household, despite arguments that lessons from design of workplace artefacts cannot be blindly transferred into the domain of the household. This paper discusses why the ideal of unremarkable or ubiquitous computing is too narrow with respect to the household. It points out how understanding technology use, is a matter of looking into the process of use and on how the specific context of the home, in several ways, call for technology to be remarkable rather than unremarkable.

Investigating design issues in household environments

This paper argues that the current involvement of end users in the design of technological artefacts is too superficial. It is common to involve people in requirements generation, but rarely in product inception or design. A study is reported involving five households in central Scotland, who were each visited on three occasions, using a new investigative framework. Illustrative examples are provided of the strengths and weaknesses of the methods used. Despite the latter, it is demonstrated that the general public can both generate and critique design ideas and that valuable contributions to understanding peoples relationships with technologies can be expected both from children and from the elderly.

Causing commotion with a shape-changing bench: experiencing shape-changing interfaces in use

In this paper we describe results from testing coMotion, a shape-changing bench, in three different contexts: a concert hall foyer, an airport departure hall and a shopping mall. We have gathered insights from more than 120 people, with regard to how users experience and make sense of the benchs shape changing capability. The paper applies McCarthy and Wrights six different sense making processes (anticipating, connecting, interpreting, reflecting, appropriating and recounting) as an instrument to analyse peoples experience with shape-changing furniture in the wild. The paper also introduces exploring as a seventh sense making process. Based on this analysis, the paper points to three relevant aspects when designing shape-changing artefacts for the wild, namely: 1) Affordance of shape-changing interfaces, 2) Transitions between background and foreground and 3) Interpreting physically dynamic objects.

Aerial tunes: exploring interaction qualities of mid-air displays

New types of interfaces are emerging in the form of shape changing and mid-air interfaces. However, little is known about how such interfaces are experienced and explored over time. This paper presents Aerial Tunes, a collaborative, tangible interface, based on balls hovering in mid-air, which can be manipulated individually, or collaboratively to explore and experiment with an ambient soundscape. We describe the design of Aerial Tunes and the technical challenges in constructing the prototype, Aerial Tunes exemplify how systems can be designed to support aesthetic experiences and promote enjoyment and excitement through a seemingly magical and unstable display, supporting explorative and tangible interaction coupled with sound feedback. Based on a four-week field study of the prototype at a public main library, we report how people experienced, investigated, interpreted and explored this interface. We describe the design intentions and qualities, which served to invite for exploration and resulted in multiple and diverse interpretations.

Floor interaction HCI reaching new ground

Within architecture, there is a long tradition of careful design of floors. The design has been concerned with both decorating floors and designing floors to carry information. Ubiquitous computing technology offers new opportunities for designing interactive floors. This paper presents three different interactive floor concepts. Through an urban perspective it draws upon the experiences of floors in architecture, and provides a set of design issues for designing interactive floors.

Tactics for homing in mobile life: a fieldwalk study of extremely mobile people

For many people home making is an activity, which extends beyond a single house. We introduce the terminology of Homing as the act of home making, when in a primary home, secondary home or more temporary spaces. By point of departure in existing literature on home making and through ethnographic studies of extremely mobile people we identify general tactics for homing. We present the identified tactics and show how people deploy not only one but several tactics in their intention of making a homely feeling despite not being in their primary home. We review the mobile technologies currently in use and argue that several of the tactics identified are currently not well supported. We discuss how technology design can learn from this study through pointing to the potential in designing mobile technologies to better support these unsupported tactics. We consider the tactics as a tool for deeper understanding of mobile practices and thus informing the design of more relevant future technologies for people engaged in a mobile lifestyle.