William Gaver
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we describe the failure of a novel sensor-based system intended to evoke user interpretation and appropriation in domestic settings. We contrast participants' interactions in this case study with those observed during more successful deployments to identify 'symptoms of failure' under four themes: engagement, reference, accommodation, and surprise and insight. These themes provide a set of sensitivities or orientations that may complement traditional task-based approaches to evaluation as well as the more open-ended ones we describe here. Our system showed symptoms of failure under each of these themes. We examine the reasons for this at three levels: problems particular to the specific design hypothesis; problems relevant for input-output mapping more generally; and problems in the design process we used. We conclude by noting that, although interpretive systems such as the one we describe here may succeed in a myriad of different ways, it is reassuring to know that they can also fail, and fail incontrovertibly, yet instructively.
- Bødker, S. When Second Wave HCI meets Third Wave challenges. NordCHI 2006. (2006). Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Boehner, K., DePaula, R., Dourish, P., and Sengers, P. Affect: from information to interaction. Proc. CC '05. ACM, (2005), 59--68. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cooper, G. and Bowers, J., Representing the user. In Thomas, P. (ed.), The social and interactional dimensions of human-computer interfaces. New York: Cambridge University Press (1995). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gaver, W. (2007). Cultural commentators: Non-native interpretations as resources for polyphonic assessment. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65, 4 (2007), 292--305. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gaver, W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Law, A., and Pennington, S. Electronic furniture for the Curious Home: Assessing ludic designs in the field. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 22, 1-2 (2007), 119--152.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gaver, W., Sengers, P., Kerridge, T., Kaye, J., and Bowers, J. Enhancing ubiquitous computing with user interpretation: field testing the home health horoscope. Proc. CHI '07 ACM (2007), 537--546. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Harrison S, Tatar D, Sengers P. The three paradigms of HCI. alt.CHI'07. (2007).Google Scholar
- Höök, K., Sengers, P., and Andersson, G. Sense and sensibility: evaluation and interactive art. Proc. CHI '03. ACM (2003), 241--248. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Isbister, K., Höök, K., Sharp, M., and Laaksolahti, J. The sensual evaluation instrument: developing an affective evaluation tool. Proc. CHI '06. ACM (2006). 1163--1172. Google ScholarDigital Library
- McCarthy J, Wright P: Technology as Experience. MIT Press (2004). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Romero, M., Pousman, Z., and Mateas, M. Tableau machine: an alien presence in the home. CHI '06 Extended Abstracts, ACM, (2006), 1265--1270. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sengers, P. and Gaver, W. Staying Open to interpretation: Engaging multiple meanings in design and evaluation. Proc. DIS 2006. ACM Press (2006). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J., and Evenson, S. Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI. Proc. CHI '07. ACM, (2007), 493--502. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Anatomy of a failure: how we knew when our design went wrong, and what we learned from it
Recommendations
Cracks in the Success Narrative: Rethinking Failure in Design Research through a Retrospective Trioethnography
What can design researchers learn from our own and each other's failures? We explore “failure” expansively—turning away from tidy success narratives toward messy unfoldings and reflexive discomfort—through retrospective trioethnography. Our findings ...
Failure to Launch: Scope Creep and Other Causes of Failure from an Actor-Network Theory Perspective
One of the main causes of delayed and failed information systems project development is scope creep. The increasing number of features demanded by stakeholders to be built into the applications within a fixed time limit is a recipe for failure. This ...
Dealing with failures during failure recovery of distributed systems
One of the characteristics of autonomic systems is self recovery from failures. Self recovery can be achieved through sensing failures, planning for recovery and executing the recovery plan to bring the system back to a normal state. For various reasons,...
Comments