-Tactics and Concepts for Highly Mobile People

Redström (Redström, 2006) argue that there is a problem in moving from object centered
design to user centered design, as users are not educated in designing future objects but
are experts about their own domain. Redström argues that designs can be made as means
for asking questions rather than being well defined answers from the start (Redström,
2006). In this process I have kept the role of the designer on my shoulders, but building
on knowledge about extreme mobility and bouncing the artifacts quickly back to people,
before the design is a closed and finished product.
The field of design ethnography is growing and there are many ways to combine the two
professions of design and ethnography (Buur & Sitorus, 2007; Crabtree, Hemmings, &
Rodden, 2002; Halse, 2008). Moving from understanding the context before designing
(Crabtree, Hemmings, & Rodden, 2002) to intervening and understanding mutually
(Halse, 2008). This dissertation follows the more traditionally approach of separating the
two in order to identify patterns for analysis through typification (Crabtree, Hemmings, &
Rodden, 2002). It is then developed into a concrete tool for design that is looking forward
with concerns of the future situation.
The ethnographic studies form an important basis for this dissertation work and working
together with Ida Winther was a significant opportunity. Her approach about homing as
an activity that is taking place in many locations is highly relevant in this project as it
addresses the paradox of home and mobility. So having her look at the practices of
extremely mobile people became a key element in the research group. She reported back
about her observations and we went through transcriptions and video recordings in
order to identify some patterns and tendencies. The findings led to the paper that I
presented at Mobile HCI in 2010:
Published as: Petersen, M. G., Lynggaard, A. B., Winther, I. W. & Krogh, P. (2010)
Tactics for Homing in Mobile Life – A Fieldwalk Study of Extremely Mobile People,
MobileHCI 2010, ACM digital Library
The tactics have then been further developed since we wrote the paper, as I have applied
it in the design process and learned more about home theories that feed the list of home
characteristics developed in this study.
58