Information and communication technologies are moving into the era of ubiquitous computing, with increased density of technology and increased mobility and continuity in use. From a design perspective, addressing the accommodation and coordination of multiple devices and services in situated use across different contexts is becoming increasingly important. In the COMIT project, ethnographic fieldwork has been combined with participatory design engaging users, designers and researchers in order to explore mobile IT use as well as the design of mobile IT concepts. Four seclected scenarios from the project are presented and discussed regarding implications for the design of mobile IT devices, with particular focus on (1) coping with multiple social contexts, and (2) the configuration and connectivity of mobile devices.
Things could be different This paper is about research methods that are explicitly oriented towards qualitative empirical exploration of the open-endedness of the world. In short, we propose that design interventions can be seen as a form of inquiry that is particularly relevant for investigating phenomena that are not very coherent, barely possible, almost unthinkable, and totally underspecified because they are still in the process of being
The future is here. Or so it has often been proclaimed by futurologists, scientists and engineers, as the fruits of science labs and cutting-edge technological gadgets are showcased, promising to make our lives more productive and more enjoyable. The public facade of design shows grand visions of future possibilities, yet every imperfect Now is also the concrete instantiation of what was once a vision of a bright future. Envisioned futures, as Bell and Dourish (2007) remind us, tend to differ radically from how they eventually unfold in the situatedness of people's lives. The future is not an empty space awaiting projected visions from an incomplete present; neither is it a predefined destination that we can simply foresee and arrive at in due time (Yelavich and Adams 2014; Mazé, this volume). Rather than seeing the future as a separate space or time, design anthropologists in this book engage with the future as a multiplicity of ideas, critiques and potentialities that are embedded in the narratives, objects and practices of our daily lives. In this sense, multiple, often conflicting, futures are always already here as part of a continuously unfolding present and past.Design Anthropological Futures explores futures and future-making from a design anthropological perspective. Here futures are not understood as striking visions created and implemented by scientists or designers, but rather as collaborative explorations of situated possibilities, formations and actions at the intersection of design and everyday life. The term futures relates both to the theoretical and practical engagement of design anthropology with futures and future-making as a subject -futures in design anthropology -and to the exploration of possible future directions for the discipline itself through such engagements -futures of design anthropology. Through various design anthropological investigations at specific sites -from care homes to corporate organizations, eco-homes to museums, Rio de Janeiro to Italy -this book critically addresses a number of dominant perspectives on, and approaches to, futures, including implied assumptions of singularity, linearity, locality and novelty. In the following we briefly elaborate on these themes and propose alternative perspectives for a design anthropological approach to futures.First, 'The future' is often referred to in the singular, using the definite article to 9781474280624_txt_print.indd 1 20/05/2016 16:16imply that there is only one version. Assuming eventual singularity of 'the future', futurologists, for example, tend to look at patterns of historical continuation and change, seeking to determine the probability of distinct future events. Although the established likelihood of a particular future does not rule out the realization of alternatives, it does foreground and authorize one dominant version of the future over alternative, subaltern ones (Mazé, this volume; Drazin, this volume). This idea of a singular future has political implications. As pointed out by Watts, 'telling stories of the...
This paper proposes a course for ethnography in design that
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