Shades of Use: the Dynamics of Interaction Design for Sociable Use
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Linköping Studies in Science and Technology Dissertation No. 900 Shades of Use: The Dynamics of Interaction Design for Sociable Use by Mattias Arvola Department of Computer and Information Science Linköpings universitet SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden Linköping 2004 Parts of this doctoral thesis appear in other publications: Artman, H., & Arvola, M. (submitted). Studio life: The construction of inter- action design. Submitted to CAL 05–Virtual Learning? April 4–6, 2005, Bristol, UK. Arvola, M. (1999). A Battle of Wits: Shared Feedback in Multi-User Applications with Single-User Control. Master’s Thesis. Linköping, Sweden: Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University. Arvola, M. (2001). Design for use quality in home informatics: A multiple perspectives view. Proceedings of Oikos2001 Workshop: Methodological Issues in the Design of Household Technologies. March 12–13, 2001, Molslabora- toriet, Denmark. Aarhus, Denmark: University of Aarhus. Arvola, M. (2003a). Good to Use!: Use Quality of Multi-User Applications in the Home. Licentiate’s Thesis. Linköping Studies in Science and Technol- ogy, Thesis No. 988. Linköping, Sweden: Linköping University. Arvola, M. (2003b). The Interaction Character of Computers in Co-located Collaboration. People and Computers XVII – Proceedings of HCI 2003. September 8–12, 2003, Bath, UK. London, UK: Springer. Mattias Arvola Arvola, M. (to appear). Considering that designers are people. Sidebar in J. Pruitt & T. Adlin, The Persona Life Cycle: Humanizing Data for Product De- Shades of use: The dynamics sign. To be published by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. of interaction design for so- Arvola, M., & Holmlid, S. (2000). IT-artefacts for socializing: Qualities-in- rd ciable use use and research framework. Proceedings of the 23 Information Systems Re- search Seminar in Scandinavia, IRIS 23: Doing IT together. August 12–15, ISBN 91-85295-42-6 2000 at Lingatan, Sweden. Trollhättan, Sweden: Laboratorium for Interaction Technology, University of Trollhättan Uddevalla. ISSN 0345-7524 Arvola, M., & Larsson, A. (2004). Regulating prominence: A design pattern for co-located collaboration. Proceedings of COOP 04, 6th International © Mattias Arvola 2004 Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems. May 11–14, French Riviera, France. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press. Cover photo: Holmlid, S., Arvola, M., & Ampler, F. (2000). Genres and design considera- Gavin Whitmore tions of iTV cases. Proceedings of NordiCHI 2000: Design vs. Design. Octo- ber 23–25, 2000 at Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Swe- Published and distributed by den. Stockholm, Sweden: STIMDI. Linköpings universitet Lidman, L., Babic, A., Arvola, M., Lönn, U., Casimir-Ahn, H. (2002). De- Department of Computer and fending clinician values: Quality-in-use of decision support systems for Information Science thoracic surgery. Proceedings of the 2002 AMIA Annual Symposium: SE-581 83 Linköping Bio*medical Informatics: One Discipline. November 9-13, 2002, San Anto- nio, TX. Bethesda, MD: American Medical Informatics Association. Printed in Sweden by Lundberg, J., Arvola, M., & Holmlid, S. (2003). Genres, use qualities and UniTryck, Linköping 2004 interactive artifacts. Proceedings HCI 2003: Designing for Society, Volume 2. September 8–12, 2003, Bath, UK. Bristol, UK: Research Press Inter- Electronically available on national on behalf of British HCI Group. www.liu.se Lundberg, J., Holmlid, S., & Arvola, M. (submitted). The browsing experi- ence of online news: A genre approach. Submitted to Behaviour and Information Technology. Abstract Computers are used in sociable situations, for example during cus- tomer meetings. This is seldom recognized in design, which means that computers often become a hindrance in the meeting. Based on empirical studies and socio-cultural theory, this thesis provides per- spectives on sociable use and identifies appropriate units of analysis that serve as critical tools for understanding and solving interaction design problems. Three sociable situations have been studied: cus- tomer meetings, design studios and domestic environments. In total, 49 informants were met with during 41 observation and interview ses- sions and 17 workshops; in addition, three multimedia platforms were also designed. The empirical results show that people need to perform individual actions while participating in joint action, in a spontaneous fashion and in consideration of each other. The consequence for de- sign is that people must be able to use computers in different manners to control who has what information. Based on the empirical results, five design patterns were developed to guide interaction design for sociable use. The thesis demonstrates that field studies can be used to identify desirable use qualities that in turn can be used as design ob- jectives and forces in design patterns. Re-considering instrumental, communicational, aesthetical, constructional and ethical aspects can furthermore enrich the understanding of identified use qualities. With a foundation in the field studies, it is argued that the deliberation of dynamic characters and use qualities is an essential component of in- teraction design. Designers of interaction are required to work on three levels: the user interface, the mediating artefact and the activity of use. It is concluded that doing interaction design is to provide users with perspectives, resources and constraints on their space for actions; the complete design is not finalized until the users engage in action. This is where the fine distinctions and, what I call ‘shades of use’ ap- pear. Acknowledgements The effort behind a thesis like this is a collaborative and indeed socia- ble experience. My warm thanks go to my main supervisor Kjell Ohls- son for encouragement and guiding words over the years. Whenever Kjell has not been around I have always been able to turn to all of the experienced researchers around me: Sture Hägglund—thank you for believing in my capability from the very beginning and for asking the difficult questions; Richard Hircsh—for inspiration and discussions on linguistics; Nils Dahlbäck—for stepping in and straightening out my mind when it was all tangled up. Henrik Artman—for great support when it comes to theory and analysis, and for helping me to see the forest behind all those trees. I also wish to thank Erik Hollnagel for all the support and reading of manuscripts. In the same breath my thanks also goes to the other colleagues that have made a strong impression on me and on my work: Björn Johanson—for always being a good friend; Jonas Lund- berg—comrade in arms; Stefan Holmlid—for shared triumphs and mistakes; Mikael Kindborg—for making it more fun; Magnus Bång—for exciting discussions over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee. Arvid Karsvall—for critical and helpful comments over the same glasses of wine and cups of coffee; Anna Andersson—for friendship and interesting discussions on this and that. Pernilla Qvarfordt—for all of our joint work in interaction design; Åsa Hedenskog—for a sharp eye and coffee breaks; Linda Lidman, Martin Wiman and Per Sök- jer—for valuable comments and discussions on the nature of interac- tion design. Anders Larsson—for putting Locomotion in code; Genevieve Gorrell—for improving my English; and Kevin McGee—for helping me be precise. I furthermore wish to thank Patrik Ernfridssson and Magnus Rimbark for the work on prototypes and interviews. I also thank all my students who have endured premature definitions and formula- tions of my work. Birgitta Franzén and Helene Wigert have given me much support over these five years. The rest of the people at the Division of Human- Centered Systems have helped by creating a good atmosphere. As part of the Graduate School for Human-Machine Interaction, I have received many valuable comments from fellow PhD students as well as senior researchers. Thank you. I do, however, owe most to my family: Marie, för att du är min bästigaste storasyster. Mamma och pappa, för att ni alltid stöttat mig. Farmor och farfar, och mommo och Hannes, för ni alltid funnits. Merja, för att du gör mig glad. This work has been supported by The Graduate School for Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) and The Swedish Research Institute for Information Technology (SITI). Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................. 9 Design in Practice, 11. • Use-Oriented Interaction Design, 19. • Aim of the Thesis, 28. • Overview of the Thesis, 29. 2. Theoretical Framework ............................................................ 33 Use as Mediation, 33. • Multiple Aspects of Use, 42. • Perspectives on the System-in-Use, 50. • Features and Attributes of Interactive Systems-in-Use, 56. • Thesis Problem, 62. • In Summary, 64. 3. Method ...................................................................................... 67 Case Studies, 67. • Case 1: The Bank, 70. • Case 2: The Studio, 72. • Case 3: The Home, 73. • Procedure of Analysis, 77. • The Particular and the General, 81. • In Summary, 83. 4. Case Settings .............................................................................85 Sociable Situations of Use, 85. • The Three Case Settings, 97. • Professional Use of Computer Systems at the Bank, 99. • Educational Use of Computers in the Studio, 103. • Leisure Use of Multimedia Platforms in the Home, 107. • In Summary, 116. 5. Desirable Qualities and Characters ...........................................119 Participation, 119. • Autonomy,