Social Acceptability in HCI: A Survey of Methods, Measures, and Design Strategies

Towards a Better Understanding of Social Acceptability

“…This classification has inspired later studies to explore the effects of the different categories of interaction on social acceptability [31] and to use it as guidance for design (e.g., [30,38,40]). While Reeves and colleagues outlined positive applications of all four types of interaction, suspenseful interaction has been seen as problematic in later studies [10,31] and hidden interactions or those with a transparent effect (magical or expressive) have been recommended instead [24]. Although the categories have proven useful as a design inspiration, one shortcoming is that they only focus on the form of interaction and not on their more nuanced social functions in a given context.…”

“…For instance, typing a text message (as opposed to recording a voice message) can be seen as a sign of respect when attending a lecture, but can be interpreted as lack of interest or "keeping secrets" when among a group of friends. Thus, while Reeves and colleagues provided a simple way to describe different types of interaction that may be appropriate in specific contexts, later work treated the question of which type of interaction is acceptable more or less universally (e.g., [1,24,31]).…”

“…It originated in information systems research and has been developed to study the "unwillingness" of employees to adopt a certain technology, with the goal to increase productivity [6]. It is, together with its later versions, widely used in the social acceptability literature (e.g., [23,24,34,35]). In its early versions, perceived usefulness and ease of use were studied as predictors of a worker's intention to use a technology, but over time several other variables were added.…”

“…Goffman's model has influenced several studies about technology use in social contexts (e.g., [4,5,24,38]). Dalsgaard and Hansen [5] based their work on Goffman, suggesting that designers should consider the relation between a user and the audience.…”

“…And in the third case, no other people influence the interaction, so non-social motives, maybe savoring time for yourself, play an important role. In this sense, social context is an inextricable part of the experience emerging from interactions with a technology as well as a crucial ingredient of social acceptability (e.g., [24,31,38]).…”