skip to main content
10.1145/778712.778750acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesdisConference Proceedingsconference-collections
Article

Notes towards an ethnography of domestic technology

Published:25 June 2002Publication History

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the key findings of an ethnographic study of domestic technology in the home. The issues addressed include: the gendered division of domestic labour and gendered product design; the privatisation of domestic space through entertainment technologies; and the necessity of making mundane housework more enjoyable. The paper briefly describes the technology biography procedure that was used to gather data, outlines key design implications, and presents illustrative product suggestions, which are intended to inspire or provoke designers.

References

  1. Blythe, M; Monk, A, Technology Biographies: Field Study Techniques for Home Use Product Development. CHI 2002 Changing The World Changing Ourselves. Extended Abstracts. pp 658--660 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. Chao, D. Doom as an Interface for Process Management. CHI Conference Proceedings. 2001 Volume No. 3, Issue No 1 152--158. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  3. Csikszentmihalyi M. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. Jossey Bass Publishers, 1975.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. Davenport, G, Holmquist, LE and Thomas, M. Fun: A Condition of Creative Research. IEEE Multimedia 5 (3) 1998 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  5. Flanagan, JC. The Critical Incident Technique. Psychological Bulletin 51, 1954, 327--358.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  6. Fletcher, C. Positional Pyramids. Submitted.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  7. Gaver et at. Cultural Probes. Interactions: New Visions of Human Computer Interaction. Vol 1, 1999.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  8. Hassenzahl, et al. Engineering Joy. IEEE Software, January / February 2001. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  9. Hindus, D et al. Designing Social Communication Devices for the Home. Computer Human Interaction 2000 Volume No. 3, Issue No 1, 325--333 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  10. Kawakami, K, 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions: the Japanese Art of Chindogu. Harper Collins, 1997Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  11. O'Brien et al. At Home with the Technology: An Ethnographic Study of a Set Top-Box Trial. ACM Transactions on Computer -- Human Interaction, Vol 6, No. 3, 1999, 282--308. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  12. Office for National Statistics Social Trends 31. The Stationery Office, London, 2001.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  13. Petersen, MG, Baillie, L. Methodologies for Designing Future Household Technologies. Oikos2001, Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, 2001.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  14. Putnam cited in Silverstone, R, Hirsch, E (Eds). Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces. Routledge, 1992.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  15. Robinson, J and Godbey, G. Time for Life. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  16. Southwell, M. Black Stockings and Pot Pourri: Gender Issues in Design and Technology. NSEAD, 1997Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  17. Swann, P. TV DOT COM: The Future of Interactive Television. LLC, 2000Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  18. Willis, P. The Ethnographic Imagination. Polity Press, Cambridge, 2000.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar

Index Terms

  1. Notes towards an ethnography of domestic technology

      Recommendations

      Comments

      Login options

      Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

      Sign in
      • Published in

        cover image ACM Conferences
        DIS '02: Proceedings of the 4th conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques
        June 2002
        413 pages
        ISBN:1581135157
        DOI:10.1145/778712

        Copyright © 2002 ACM

        Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

        Publisher

        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        • Published: 25 June 2002

        Permissions

        Request permissions about this article.

        Request Permissions

        Check for updates

        Qualifiers

        • Article

        Acceptance Rates

        DIS '02 Paper Acceptance Rate44of139submissions,32%Overall Acceptance Rate1,158of4,684submissions,25%

        Upcoming Conference

        DIS '24
        Designing Interactive Systems Conference
        July 1 - 5, 2024
        IT University of Copenhagen , Denmark

      PDF Format

      View or Download as a PDF file.

      PDF

      eReader

      View online with eReader.

      eReader