Adding critical sensibilities to domestic communication technologies

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Abstract

This paper presents suggestions for a more pragmatic approach to the design of emerging and future domestic communication technologies, particularly technologies destined for the home that may be deemed ‘ubiquitous’. This is achieved through two critical reviews of a small number of social studies related to the design and use of existing and emerging communication technologies. The first review explores how existing, recent and emerging technologies are adopted within the domestic home and explores how social patterns dictate adoption. The second review draws more broadly on research activity related to the design and development of ubiquitous technologies for everyday life and what lessons can be learnt from them. Together, these two reviews suggest novel communication technology adoption will evolve through small imperceptible steps from the edges of existing products and services; therefore design research needs to be more aligned to this approach. To make any real impact and influence, research activity needs to move away from attempts to deliver ubiquity in the home and place more emphasis at the pragmatic, incremental level of emerging communication services and products.

Introduction

This paper presents suggestions for a more pragmatic approach to the design of emerging and future domestic communication technologies, particularly technologies destined for the home that maybe deemed ‘ubiquitous’. Mark Weiser is generally recognised as defining the term ‘ubiquitous computing’ and putting a case forward for computing devices that will disappear into everyday life thus rendering them invisible. He was concerned that non-technical aspects of his vision, the social and cultural aspects needed to be key determinants in design and development thinking. Weiser's vision (1991) has precipitated considerable research with the production of a wide variety of prototypical devices. With over 15 years of development activity since the inception of this concept, it is now possible to reflect on our current understanding and use of ubiquitous computing within the context of a domestic environment and be able to suggest how to build future domestic communication technologies.

Within this context, this paper proposes a broader socio-technical approach in order to purposefully shape these technologies. Nardi and O’Day (1999, p. 22) state, ‘The issue is not whether we will use technologies, but which we will choose and whether we will use them well. The challenge now is to introduce some critical sensibilities into our evaluation and use of technology, and beyond that, to make a real impact on the kinds of technology that will be available to us in the future’. This paper continues this debate by identifying what these critical sensibilities might be in a more pragmatic sense by offering a considered approach to the design and adoption of ubiquitous communication technologies within the home. This is achieved through a critical review of a number of social studies related to the innovation and adoption behaviour of existing and emerging communication technologies. The first short review explores how existing, recent and emerging technologies are adopted within the domestic home and explores how social patterns help dictate adoption of new technologies. The second section draws more broadly on research activity related to the design and development of ubiquitous technologies for everyday life and what lessons can be learnt from them. These two reviews help identify where research into domestic communication technologies is best placed so that we can purposefully shape these new technologies. Whilst domestic environments do not evolve as individual islands, they have very distinct characteristics from other communication environments such as business or public places; essentially homes are, or can be, intimate and private spaces which are keenly protected. Homes allow for individual and group privacy while also being receptive to external social interactions. New communication technologies continually redefine these sensitive boundaries between social and private spaces. Therefore we need to understand these changing boundaries in much the same way as they are understood within business and public environments in order to shape these technologies for the future.

Section snippets

Domestic communication technologies in the home

A small number of social science studies addressing domestic communication technologies at different stages of maturity were selected. These were analysed to detect common threads of usage and thus adoption behaviour that persisted across the different communication devices. The technologies selected were: the traditional telephone (Anderson et al., 1999; Kline, 2003); emerging technologies such as domestic networking (Grinter and Edwards, 2005) and instant messaging (IM) (Diane et al., 2002;

Communication technologies in development

Many researchers have argued that an important prerequisite to the development of new domestic technologies is the need for a contextually rich understanding of domestic life to provide parameters for design activity (Hughes et al., 2000; Blythe and Monk, 2002; Crabtree and Rodden, 2004) or more specifically to provide guidance on new technologies for existing communication methods (Crabtree et al., 2003). Research groups have set up smart homes (Taylor et al., 2006) in order to explore more

Identifying pragmatic sensibilities

By exploring past present and future adoption of domestic communications technologies and combining these with other studies that have introduced, observed or designed innovative communication devices in domestic and commercial contexts, it is possible to see that new devices and services will not emerge in unforeseen or significantly creative ways. Thus discussions about the social and ethical implications of dazzling new communication technologies (Bohn et al., 2004) are probably unnecessary.

Conclusions

Beck (1992) argues that industrialised society creates a wide range of social, political, environment and biological risks which need to be managed through ‘reflexive modernisation’ mainly through political reform through the democratisation of technological development. This review provides an argument for focussing this reflexive thinking at a pragmatic level. As designers and researchers of new communication technologies, we need to review more carefully the more mundane and likely

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