-Tactics and Concepts for Highly Mobile People

does not however provide instant communication, but is more towards slow technology
(Hallnäs & Redström, 2001) that doesn’t call for speed or efficiency. HiT is a way of
making slow messaging that is also identified as a communication need for distant
couples (S. King & Forlizzi, 2007) through person-­‐to-­‐place communication. The design of
home technologies call for technologies that support the domestic values that are distinct
from work values such as efficiency and effectiveness. Brown et al. (Brown et al., 2007)
point towards domestic technologies should concern affection, reassurance, identity and
togetherness. That is why we promote slow technology in the home rather than instant
messaging. The element of being a physical artifact in the home was present in two of the
setups but not the iGoogle setup and the biggest difference that this made was that the
pictures were seen by others coming into the homes and became focal point for
conversation. Because the system took form of a physical artifact within the home, it
functioned as an ambient awareness display that reminded about the ones being away in
a peripheral sense. The prototype was referred to from a participant as “not a work thing”
and thus an object that belonged in the home where private activities take place.
The third area that is elucidated through this prototype is communicating through visuals.
It came to our attention that the prototype enhanced a new way of communicating by
telling a story through a picture. The participants started to take pictures that were self-­‐
explanatory e.g. in front of a sign. Other researchers identify people who communicate
through pictures as Snaprs (Miller & Edwards, 2007). This means that they tell stories
with pictures through photographic communication. The pictures are often captured with
mobile devices like camera phones. There is however also an importance in gathering
with familiar people, around the pictures to share the narratives they represent, in what
Miller et al refer to as ‘home mode’ (Miller & Edwards, 2007). HiT can be seen as an
answer to this need as it is direct from person-­‐to-­‐place and it provides a stage for the
stories. The pictures were furthermore experienced as gifts and the receivers hacked the
prototypes in order to keep the pictures on other medias.
The most dominant design sensitivity here concerns relationships that are maintained
even though being on the move. The communication is kept at a simple level, reflecting
the context of use and the connection is experienced through thoughts, since the
communication channel is very simple takes place at a mental level, sending a thought to
a remote person and the place where the picture frame is placed. The home feeling is
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