-Tactics and Concepts for Highly Mobile People

This description and mapping of the tactics should provide an understanding of the
characteristics that are present in each tactics in relation to establishing a home feeing.
Most of the home characteristics are present in more than one tactic and the above
description is a guide towards identifying the boundaries between them.
3.3. Homing Interactions
In order to operationalize the Tactics and transform this into development of new designs
that build upon the practices of mobile people, I will adapt the term ‘characteristics of
home’ into ‘design sensitivities’. It is relevant to look at work by Ciolfi and Banon (Ciolfi &
Bannon, 2002)in order to understand the term design sensitivities, which is a tool for
ensuring the link between observations and design as “to shape the design process to be
sensitive to various issues, as determined from observational studies.” (Ciolfi & Bannon,
2002, p. 64). The sensitivities can be applied differently according to the design goal. In
this case the aim is to design for homing in a mobile era and the list of sensibilities
consists of the different aspects that can lead to feeling at home.
The insights about feeling at home and tactics people perform then become a tool for the
creation of a becoming rather than looking back. The tactics then become homing
interactions, described through design sensitivities. The different tactics are thus
transformed into the taxonomy of homing interactions.
The Territorializing Interaction is established through design sensitivities supporting
creation of physical boundaries to establish places. The interactions can provide tools for
control of this space, where security and privacy is supported. The interactions help
define a territory that can also be defined through self-­‐expression. The Territorializing
Interaction should therefore support personalization of places, which can be done by
establishing an atmosphere that defines a place rather than space without boundaries.
Bubbling Interaction is design sensitivity towards keeping context away. The interaction
should lead to providing control of the space in proximity of the body. Bubbling
Interactions can be through portable devices that provide continuity and can be used for
regenerating when shutting out other things.
The interaction in relation to Artifacting is treated through design sensitivities that
support obtaining a sense of home through artifacts. An Artifacting interaction should
47