This is a video of the presentation of a research paper on online shopping and sound. The paper was presented at the IADIS WWW/Internet 2006 conference in Murcia, Spain. This conference is so relaxed and accessible that makes it a very nice experience accessible to everybody and not only to the intellectual elite caste.   more »

We describe work in developing an approach to the design of technological artefacts based in pragmatist aesthetics, grounding ideas in a developing case study, representing one possible way in which such a conceptual approach, which we see as essentially empathic, may evolve. From a conception of designer as creative and intersubjective subject, we explore the difficulties and possibilities in designing empathically for blind experience. We propose appropriation as a basis for sighted designers to build empathy with users by understanding blind experience as aesthetic. Various phases of appropriation provide a way of developing empathy and increasing agency in design.   more »

In this paper, a review of some recent advances in thestudy of experience in HCI highlights developments towards an emphasis on the aesthetic and the subjective in design and use of electronic artefacts. A framework for the conceptualisation of user aesthetic experience is then presented, inspired by theorists from disciplines outside the traditional HCI matrix. The framework emphasises the relation between users and designers as co-constructors of experience and allows for physical, emotional and intellectual qualities in aesthetic experiences. The work represents one phase in an ongoing research program to develop a methodology for understanding and designing to support user experience, at a time of change towards humanist concerns in HCI.    more »

Following current developments on the scene of design and research practice for HCI, we have augmented the understanding we may have of our roles as prescribed by society. Seeking a pragmatic way of developing our understanding of what it is to design technology, we argue the role of designers to be more than we perceive of ourselves. In particular, we propose envisaging such roles in a broader context concerning how actions relate to a community, to language and to the vocabularies that constitute the role. Our call is for a greater openness to wider communities and a complete abandonment of the fallacy of objectivity. Most importantly, we try to establish hope for a reweaving of beliefs and a move beyond method to free our roles as agents rather than seeing them directed from external imagined sources.   more »

HCI approaches centering on designing for experience rather than task completion attempt to address a need for computational artefacts that are enjoyable, fun, appealing or meaningful. Tracing historical influences on computer science and user interface design, we highlight some limitations of resulting scientific approaches to design for experience. An example of an information display based on the concepts of ‘informative art’ illustrates a means of overcoming some of the limitations through a more holistic approach.   more »

Current work involves examining the implications and possibilities of adopting a pragmatist aesthetics perspective in HCI. Specifically, emphasis is on pursuing a better understanding of how the practice of designing technological artefacts may be an aesthetic experience resulting in the construction of objects that form the focus for reflection and meaning-making. In this position paper, we discuss the initial phases of a developing case study addressing the challenge for sighted designers of constructing such a technological artefact for blind people. The case study, adopting qualities of a pragmatist aesthetics approach, highlights the implications for design of the inseparability of acts of creating and appropriating objects and emphasises the role of empathy in designing and the search for the aesthetic in design   more »

An approach to Interaction Design emphasising the emotional-volitional construction of experiences with technology as sensual, emotional and embodied, can lead to a betterunderstanding of how to support blind people‘s experiences with interactive technologies ina meaningful way. In this paper we discuss how understanding and interpretation ofautobiographical accounts by people with vision loss, has provided opportunity for reflectionover how people build meaningful experiences without sight. Such critical reflection emphasises the significance of emotion and agency in making artefacts meaningful, rather than just usable, for blind users. An interpretive approach to the texts, supports a notion ofthe designer(s) as creative, empathic subject(s). The research forms a part of a larger project exploring the means and dynamics suggested by a pragmatist aesthetics approachto creating artefacts that help designers understand the world in different ways.   more »

Language connects people. It helps communicate felt meaning and turns otherwise nondescript occurrences into meaningful experiences. Transformation into meaningfulness is the result of language operating through the actions of a community (Dewey, 1958). In this sense, language helps distinguish humans from other animals. For example, humans can not only feel the heat from a radiator and want to be near it out of pure instinct..   more »