-Tactics and Concepts for Highly Mobile People

The development of the first computers was not to satisfy needs in the home, but derived
from a task driven demand of improving the power of calculation. Computers then
became tools supporting various work tasks and a tool to support entertainment. Now it
is common to have computers and other technologies in the homes touching on every
aspects of the life within the home. Gaver also points towards the home as a site for
pleasure rather than utility (Gaver et al., 2004), which makes it very distinct from the
context of work situations. The context of technologies in homes concerns designing for
“everyday pleasure”.
Home as a site for designing future information technologies has gathered much interest
through the past decade (Brush & Inkpen, 2007; Judge, Neustaedter, & Kurtz, 2010;
Neustaedter, Brush, & Greenberg, 2007; Tolmie et al., 2010). Many of these projects have
focused on designing for as a stereotypical house occupied by a busy nuclear family.
Research focused on the home is now becoming more nuanced as a site that is varied and
complex. This is evident through studies of divorced families (Odom, Zimmerman, &
Forlizzi, 2010), retirees in mobile homes (Zafiroglu & Chang, 2007), people struck by life
disruptions (Massimi, Dimond, & Le Dantec, 2012), people with disabilities (Jacobson &
Pirinen, 2007), low income families (Yardi & Bruckman, 2012) and families living a very
distinct home life in non-­‐western cultures (Rangaswamy, Nair, & Toyama, 2008). The
anthropologist Laura Nader (Nader, 1972) identified a field not yet been studied by
anthropology, more than forty years ago: the cultures of the powerful elites. She defines
studies of the culture of affluence as studying up. Traditional HCI is mostly studying
sideways (Dourish & Bell, 2011) and some study down (Yardi & Bruckman, 2012),
whereas there are very few, if any, examples of studying up. This dissertation contributes
to studying up, to widen the field of HCI. This is done through studies of some of the
wealthiest customers of Bang & Olufsen.
Ljungblad et al (Ljungblad & Holmquist, 2007) have pointed to the potential of studying
marginal practices to spark innovation, and Djajadiningrat et al (Djajadiningrat, Gaver, &
Fres, 2000) have argued that even imagining extreme characters with exaggerated
emotional attitudes can help break with conventions around interaction and established
cultural roles of technology. Woodruff et al (Woodruff, Augustin, & Foucault, 2007) find
that specific groups, i.e. Jews, can provide insights into long-­‐term, real life experience with
home automation. These inspirational insights can then be applied for design that users
from other backgrounds can benefit from. This dissertation is also an example of seeking
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