Unfolding understandings: co-designing UbiComp In Situ, over time.

A key challenge in co-designing UbiComp is that users may have limited understanding or experience of these technologies. While the value of situated co-design activities for promoting understanding is known, the role of time is less well researched. Here we describe and reflect on a range of co-des...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Halloran, J, Hornecker, E, Fitzpatrick, G, Weal, M, Millard, D, Michaelides, D, Cruickshank, D, Roure, D
Other Authors: Carroll, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: ACM 2006
Description
Summary:A key challenge in co-designing UbiComp is that users may have limited understanding or experience of these technologies. While the value of situated co-design activities for promoting understanding is known, the role of time is less well researched. Here we describe and reflect on a range of co-design activities carried out with the curators of an historic English manor house to create novel visitor tours. We show how an ensemble of situated co-design activities over time led to the unfolding of user understanding around issues of content, technology and user experience, in turn leading to a progressive re-imagining of practice. This points to the importance of time and variety of in-situ activities to help people engage as co-designers in creating novel UbiComp-enabled experiences. Copyright 2006 ACM.