Family memories in the home: contrasting physical and digital mementos

We carried out fieldwork to characterise and compare physical and digital mementos in the home. Physical mementos are highly valued, heterogeneous and support different types of recollection. Contrary to expectations, we found physical mementos are not purely representational, and can involve appropriating common objects and more idiosyncratic forms. In contrast, digital mementos were initially perceived as less valuable, although participants later reconsidered this. Digital mementos were somewhat limited in function and expression, largely involving representational photos and videos, and infrequently accessed. We explain these digital limitations and conclude with design guidelines for digital mementos, including better techniques for accessing and integrating these into everyday life, allowing them to acquire the symbolic associations and lasting value that characterise their physical counterparts

Programming Not Only by Example

In recent years, there has been tremendous progress in automated synthesis techniques that are able to automatically generate code based on some intent expressed by the programmer. A major challenge for the adoption of synthesis remains in having the programmer communicate their intent. When the expressed intent is coarse-grained (for example, restriction on the expected type of an expression), the synthesizer often produces a long list of results for the programmer to choose from, shifting the heavy-lifting to the user. An alternative approach, successfully used in end-user synthesis is programming by example (PBE), where the user leverages examples to interactively and iteratively refine the intent. However, using only examples is not expressive enough for programmers, who can observe the generated program and refine the intent by directly relating to parts of the generated program. We present a novel approach to interacting with a synthesizer using a granular interaction model. Our approach employs a rich interaction model where (i) the synthesizer decorates a candidate program with debug information that assists in understanding the program and identifying good or bad parts, and (ii) the user is allowed to provide feedback not only on the expected output of a program, but also on the underlying program itself. That is, when the user identifies a program as (partially) correct or incorrect, they can also explicitly indicate the good or bad parts, to allow the synthesizer to accept or discard parts of the program instead of discarding the program as a whole. We show the value of our approach in a controlled user study. Our study shows that participants have strong preference to using granular feedback instead of examples, and are able to provide granular feedback much faster

Designing circular possessions: exploring human-object relationships in the circular economy

This thesis argues the need for a fundamental shift from the design of products to the design of possessions in the circular economy. Possessions in the circular economy are characterised by interactions resulting in a user-object relationship rather than legalese and differ from the linear economy in terms of their length of use and number of users. Individual users are thus seen as critical actors to enable material circulation in that they take possession and dispossess of products. Two key topics—psychological ownership and contaminated interaction—are explored in detail to fill theoretical gaps in design research and practice. After discussing these topics, some directions and guidelines are suggested. Possession or ownership is taken as an innate human desire. A framework describes the method of developing ownership including the motives, routes, and paths that guide the development of that relationship. This framework is used to describe object attachment to inform product longevity and decisions around keeping and discarding. It is also useful to help explain why some access-based models are adopted while others are not. Maintaining perceived value in the circular economy entails mitigating contaminated interaction—tainted interaction due to prior use and prior users. Contaminated interaction is shown to affect new circular business opportunities, disposal decisions and downcycling. A typology is presented to characterise indicators of use with an emphasis on sensorial material properties. Aversion to used products is found to come from three drivers: hygiene, utility and territory. A theoretical framework for contaminated interaction is presented which is explored through positive and negative forms of contamination. Finally, a case study shows how alterations in product characteristics lead to improper disposal and act as an example of what it means to design of circular possessions.Open Acces

Subjective Causality and Counterfactuals in the Social Sciences

The article explores the role that subjective evidence of causality and associated counterfactuals and counterpotentials might play in the social sciences where comparative cases are scarce. This scarcity rules out statistical inference based upon frequencies and usually invites in-depth ethnographic studies. Thus, if causality is to be preserved in such situations, a conception of ethnographic causal inference is required. Ethnographic causality inverts the standard statistical concept of causal explanation in observational studies, whereby comparison and generalization, across a sample of cases, are both necessary prerequisites for any causal inference. Ethnographic causality allows, in contrast, for causal explanation prior to any subsequent comparison or generalization