Domestic Systems - Related Papers
Designing with Care: Adapting cultural probes to inform design in sensitive settings - Mark Rouncefield et. al.
We report on the methodological process of developing computer support for former psychiatric patients living in residential care settings, for older members of the community, and disabled people living at home. Methods for identifying user needs in such sensitive settings are underdeveloped and the situation presents a very complex set of design challenges. In particular, the highly personal character of such settings presents conventional observational techniques, such as ethnography, with obdurate problems that make direct observation intrusive, disruptive and inappropriate on occasion. Direct observation requires supplementation in sensitive settings. Accordingly, we report on our experiences of adapting Cultural Probes to explore care settings, to develop a design dialogue with participants, and to gather information about their unique needs.
Standards and the dependability of electronic assistive technology - Guy Dewsbury et. al.
Electronic Assistive Technology (AT) includes both technology to help people with their daily activities, such as a door entry, and sensors that can raise alarms on detecting a fall or some other incident in the home i.e. home telehealthcare (usually abbreviated to Telecare). Electronic AT is of great economic and social value as it allows people to remain in normal homes when otherwise they would be forced to move to some sort of institutional setting. Electronic ATs are critical systems in the sense that if they fail there may be resulting injury or distress. A door entry system that locks an older person into their home, or opens the door at random times when interfering radio signals are received will cause considerable distress. A social alarm system that leads someone who has had a fall to believe help is on the way, when it is not, is a danger to life. Given the critical nature of these systems one would expect them to be covered by extensive legislation to enforce high standards of design and manufacture. This paper examines the measures that can be taken in this respect. It can be viewed as preparatory to a survey of current practice which has yet to be carried out and as the beginning of a campaign to encourage more visible evaluation of the dependability of electronic ATs.
Domestic routines and design for the home - Andy Crabtree and Tom Rodden
The domestic environment is predicted by market analysts to be the major growth area in computing over the next decade, yet it is a poorly understood domain at the current time of writing. Research is largely confined to the laboratory environment, although it has been recognized that ubiquitous computing will in due course have to resonate with the ‘stable and compelling routines of the home’. This paper seeks to inform ubiquitous computing for the home environment by unpacking the notion of domestic routines as coordinational features of domestic life. We focus in particular on the routine nature of communication and use ethnographic study to explicate a discrete organization of coordination whereby household members routinely manage communications coming into and going out of the home. The coordinate ways in which members routinely organize communication are made visible through sequences of practical action, which articulate domestic routines and key properties of communication. These include ecological habitats, activity centres, and coordinate displays at which technology is at the core. These organizational features combine to form a locally produced system of communication and open up the play of possibilities for design, articulating the distinct needs of particular settings and ‘prime sites’ for the deployment of ubiquitous computing devices.
Crabtree, A. and Rodden, T. (2004) Domestic routines and design for the home, Computer
Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing, vol. 13 (2), pp. 191-220.
Enabling and applying person-centered design for older adults - Guy Dewsbury
In our editorial we argued that personcentred
design acts as an antidote to
technocentric visions of ageing by approaching
technology development
from the perspective of the people who
will use it. This best practice reports on
two projects: a user centre, and evaluations
of person-centred technologies.
The Dependability Telecare Assessment Tool - Guy Dewsbury
This paper considers development and application of the Dependability Telecare Assessment tool (DTA) and the Telecare Assessment process. This tool was developed as a result of extensive research with older people and professionals who have informed the design. The tool also has been developed from a method: the Method for Dependable Domestic Systems (MDDS) and a model: the Dependability Model of Domestic Systems (DMDS).
The Antisocial Model of Disability - Guy Dewsbury et. al.
Social theories are usually developed to enable a clearer understanding of a situation or problem. The
'Social Model' is currently the dominant model for researching disability, addressing disability from
within a socio-political framework which draws substantially on a ‘social constructionist’ perspective.
This paper critiques some of the core sociological assumptions of the Social Model, questioning what
'work' the theory does in broadening our understanding of disability or informing the design of
assistive technologies and suggests an alternative framework of analysis, supported by extensive
ethnomethodologically informed ethnographic research.
Depending on Digital Design: Extending Exclusivity - Guy Dewsbury, Mark Rouncefield, Karen Clarke and Ian Sommerville
This paper documents work from the EPSRC 'EQUATOR’ and 'Dependability Interdisciplinary Research
Collaboration on Computer Based Systems’ (DIRC) concerned with the appropriate design of dependable
assistive technology to enable older and disabled people to maintain a quality of life within their own
homes. Technology, especially so-called "smart home" technology, can only be used to assist people if it is
effectively designed. Designers are therefore required to consider certain key questions such as what
situation they are designing for, what solutions should do, and who should use them. The focus in this
paper is on understanding and identifying user needs and system requirements for dependability in the
complex challenge of inclusive design. The feature of inclusive design we address is the new emphasis on
the user, a living, breathing person situated in real world settings along with others, rather than some
designer’s abstraction.
Designing Acceptable 'Smart' Home Technology to Support People in the Home - Guy Dewsbury et. al.
This paper considers the main aspects and questions that are required to be asked by any designer of residences that
include technology designed to support the lives of disabled people. It seeks to reframe the design process to extend the concepts
of 'inclusive' and 'universal' design within the social context of designing for people with a wide range of disabilities. Designing
'smart homes' or homes that contain elements of ‘smart home’ technology for disabled or older people is not different from
designing the home for people without any form of impairment on the one hand. On the other hand, there is a perceptual shift
that is required in order to ensure needs are met from all stakeholders. There is a need to determine the needs of the occupant(s)
and reflect these needs within the overall design. This paper addresses the main questions that arise from the design process as
well as discuss the role of cultural probes in enhancing the design.
A Dependability Model of Domestic Systems - Guy Dewsbury, Ian Sommerville, Karen Clarke and Mark Rouncefield
Technically-based models of dependability such as Laprie's model
suggest that there are attributes that should be reflected in the design of a
system. These attributes tend to be attributes of the software or hardware and
the models assume that system operators can be treated in the same way as
software or hardware components. While this approach may be valid for some
control systems with tightly specified operational processes, we argue that it
must be extended if it is to be applied to systems where there is significant
discretion on the part of the user as to how they will use the system. In
particular, for systems in the home, we argue that the notion of dependability
should be broadened This paper suggests that through the design of assistive
technology (AT) systems for older people we can demonstrate the user should
be placed at the centre of the process when considering system dependability.
The ins and outs of home networking: the case for useful and usable domestic networking - Andy Crabtree et. al.
Householders are increasingly adopting home networking as a solution to the demands created by the
presence of multiple computers, devices, and the desire to access the Internet. However, current network
solutions are derived from the world of work (and initially the military) and provide poor support for the
needs of the home. We present the key findings to emerge from empirical studies of home networks in the
UK and US. The studies reveal two key kinds of work that effective home networking relies upon: one, the
technical work of setting up and maintaining the home network, and the other, the collaborative and socially
organized work of the home in which the network is embedded and supports. The two are thoroughly
intertwined and rely upon one another for their realization, yet neither is adequately supported by current
networking technologies and applications. Explication of the ‘work to make the home network work’ opens
up the design space for the continued integration of the home network in domestic life and elaboration of
future support. Key issues for development include the development of networking facilities that do not
require advanced networking knowledge, that are flexible and support the local social order of the home and
the evolution of its routines, and which ultimately make the home network visible and accountable to
household members.
Configuring the ubiquitous home - Tom Rodden, Andy Crabtree et. al.
This paper presents the development of a lightweight component model
that allows user to manage the introduction and arrangement of new interactive
services and devices in the home. Interaction techniques developed through userparticipation
enable household members – rather than designers – to configure and
reconfigure interactive devices and services to meet local needs. As part of this we
have developed a tablet-based editor that discovers available ubiquitous components
and presents these to users as jigsaw pieces that can be dynamically recombined. We
conclude by considering the broad implications for the design of interactive
domestic environments suggested by our approach.
Dependable Domestic Systems Design: A Socio-Technical Approach - Ian Sommerville and Guy Dewsbury
This paper describes a model that defines the attributes of domestic systems that lead to system
dependability and a user-oriented specification method for support systems based on this model. We start
by discussing technical dependability models and discuss how these have to be extended for use in a
domestic context. We present an extended dependability model based on a socio-technical perspective.
This extends the technical notion of dependability to take into account fitness for purpose, acceptability
and adaptability. We then go on to discuss MDDS – a questionnaire-based method that reflects the sociotechnical
dependability model. It is intended for use by social care professionals who are specifying and
designing support systems for older or disabled people. MDDS provides a basis for examining a design
from a dependability perspective. We illustrate the use of the method and conclude with a discussion of its
qualitative evaluation.
MDDS: http://www.smartthinking.ukideas.com/MDDS.html
DTA: http://www.smartthinking.ukideas.com/DTA.html and http://thetelecareblog.blogspot.com/
DIRC: www.dirc.org.uk
Related Websites