Reciprocal Habituation

Abstract

We explore relationships between habits and technology interaction by reporting on older people's experience of the Kinect for Xbox. We contribute to theoretical and empirical understandings of habits in the use of technology to inform understanding of the habitual qualities of our interactions with computing technologies, particularly systems exploiting natural user interfaces. We situate ideas of habit in relation to user experience and usefulness in interaction design, and draw on critical approaches to the concept of habit from cultural theory to understand the embedded, embodied, and situated contexts in our interactions with technologies. We argue that understanding technology habits as a process of reciprocal habituation in which people and technologies adapt to each other over time through design, adoption, and appropriation offers opportunities for research on user experience and interaction design within human-computer interaction, especially as newer gestural and motion control interfaces promise to reshape the ways in which we interact with computers.

Universal Participatory Design: Achievements and Challenges

“…The authors discussed the implications of this perspective on the design of online health information systems. Nansen et al [32] explored the relationships between habits and interaction with technology by describing older people's experience with the Kinect to Xbox. The paper investigated the relationship between habits and natural user interface (NUI) with older adults and their family.…”