Digital ritualized interaction: Towards conceptualizing mediated familial bonding via family connecting technology

Appropriation of connecting technology in the context of family use has revealed its affordance as mediating tool to facilitate familial bonding, as that which is beyond communication.Yet, its operationalization through the HCI design is still not extensively studied.It is postulated that the theory of Interaction Ritual and family ritual could serve as a lens for understanding of how interface design mediates such bonding in digital environment.As theories, they are specifically tailored to understanding interactions among people and technologies which further assist in conducting an interpretative analysis in producing mappings of interaction design concepts to bonding eliciting design features informed by earlier work.The model serves as a new foundation to inform appropriate design of future family connecting technology in pursuit of familial bonding

Family rituals and the potential for interaction design : a study of Christmas

Drawing on a field study with eight families in northern England, we explore the traditions and rituals carried out at Christmas, looking at the artefacts and processes that constitute family life at this time of year. Besides individual differences, a common pattern emerges: an extended preparation is carried out by the hosting household over a few weeks to set up the celebration and build expectations; preparation gives way to a short but intense celebration shared with the family or intimate friends; then decorations are stored and there is a return to normal life. The celebration is across generations and everyone takes part. We note examples of new and evolving rituals. Starting from the three identified phases, we discuss the theoretical and technical implications of our findings for the design of more sympathetic technology that holds potential for augmenting family rituals sensitively and possibly creating new ones

Fine, Elaine - Covid-19 Journal

COVID Diary submitted by Charleston/Coles County, IL resident and musician, Elaine Fin

Proceed with Care:Reimagining Home IoT Through a Care Perspective

As the internet is increasingly embedded in the everyday things in our homes, we notice a need for greater focus on the role care plays in those relationships—and therefore an opportunity to realize un- seen potential in reimagining home Internet of Things (IoT). In this paper we report on our inquiry of home dwellers’ relationships to caring for their everyday things and homes (referred to as thing- care). Findings from our design ethnography reveal four thematic qualities of their relationships to thingcare: Care Spectacle, Care Liminality, Ontological Binding, and Care Condition. Using these themes as touchstones, we co-speculated to produce four specula- tive IoT concepts to explore what care as a design ethic might look like for IoT and reflect on nascent opportunities and challenges for domestic IoT design. We conclude by considering structures of power and privilege embedded within care practices that critically open new design imaginaries for IoT

Mobile technologies and the spatiotemporal configurations of institutional practice

One of the most significant contemporary technological trends is institutional adoption and use of mobile and location-based systems and services. We argue that the notion of “location” as it manifests itself in location-based systems is being produced as an object of exchange. Here we are specifically concerned with what happens to institutional roles, power relationships, and decision-making processes when a particular type of information—that of spatiotemporal location of people—is made into a technologically tradable object through the use of location-based systems. We examine the introduction of GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technologies by the California criminal justice system and the institution of parole for monitoring the movements of parolees, with consequences both for the everyday lives of these parolees and the work practices of their parole officers. We document the ways in which broad adoption of location-based and mobile technologies has the capacity to radically reconfigure the spatiotemporal arrangement of institutional processes. The presence of digital location traces creates new forms of institutional accountability, facilitates a shift in the understood relation between location and action, and necessitates new models of interpretation and sense making in practice

Gamers connected

Onlinefähige Computerspiele sind seit über einem Jahrzehnt im Fokus vieler WissenschaftlerInnen; mittlerweile haben sich jedoch auch die Spielkonsolen als Online-Plattformen etabliert. Alle aktuellen Konsolen verfügen über die Möglichkeit, Spiele via Internet gemeinsam mit bekannten oder unbekannten Spielenden zu erleben, wobei die Konsolen-Hersteller Microsoft, Nintendo und Sony dafür unterschiedliche Online-Konzepte offerieren. Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt zuerst einen theoretischen Abriss über computervermittelte Kommunikation (Computer Mediated Communication – kurz CMC) und ihre Auswirkungen auf das Spielerlebnis sowie die Bindung zwischen den Spielenden und die daraus resultierenden Netzwerke, welcher anschließend in Kontext zu den Spielsystemen PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 und Wii gesetzt wird. Auf dieser theoretischen Basis werden zwei Hypothesen anhand einer Online-Befragung (n=259) überprüft, wonach unterschiedliche Spielsysteme unterschiedliche Beziehungs- und Kommunikationsstrukturen entstehen lassen, welche wiederum Einfluss auf die Spieldauer haben. Diese Hypothesen haben sich für die untersuchte Stichprobe bestätigt, für eine Generalisierung sind aber weitere Forschungen unumgänglich.Computer games with online capabilities have been the topic of the work of many scientists for over a decade; by now, however, also gaming consoles have been established as renowned online platforms. All current systems feature possibilities to play games with other known or unknown players using an internet connection, though the three gaming console manufacturers, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, offer different online concepts. The following paper will first give a theoretical approach to Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and its influence on the gaming experience as well as the relation between the players and the hence evolving networks and then further bring this theory into practical context on the example of the gaming systems Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Based on this theory also two hypotheses have been verified by the means of an online survey (n=259) according to which different gaming systems create different relation and communication structures which, on the other hand, have influence on the gaming duration. These hypotheses have been proven correct for the observed sample, however, for general prove further studies would be indispensable

Being There, but How? On the Transformation of Presence in (Post-)Pandemic Times

In phenomenological tradition, presence has been understood as fundamental for human experience: I experience the world as my lifeworld because I am present in this world. Even more, I experience myself as "I" only in the physical presence of the other. However, this concept of presence has become fragile through processes of medialization - especially in (post-)pandemic everyday life. Presence can no longer be experienced exclusively in physical proximity, but also digitally or virtually. With global case studies alongside theoretical discussions by both students as well as junior and senior researchers, the volume launches a conversation between social sciences and humanities on how this change affects human experience

All in the Family: Exploring Design Personas of Systems for Remote Communication with Preschoolers

Although there have been recent advances in remote communication technologies that foster connectedness and intimacy over a distance, systems designed for communicating with preliterate preschoolers—a desired use case—are not yet prevalent, nor are there clear guidelines for their design. We conducted a mixed-methods study to characterize the current practices, goals, and needs of people who wish to use remote communication systems with young children. We present quantitative and qualitative findings on the motivations for communicating, the habits, activities, and patterns that have been established, and the barriers and concerns faced. We synthesized these findings into four design personas that describe the desired functionality and requirements of systems to support remote communication with preschoolers. For each persona, we systematically evaluated 60 research-based systems based on the extent to which each persona’s requirements were covered, demonstrating that none of the personas were greatly satisfied with the available tools