Digital Christmas: an exploration of festive technology

ABSTRACT

Elaborating on the result of a field study of Christmas traditions in eight British households, we explore the design of technology specifically aimed at augmenting existing practices. Four concepts that favoured playfulness and engagement across generations were discussed in a workshop with eight people who took part in the initial field study. The importance of being connected and spending time together in a way that reinforces the family bonding was evident. The enthusiasm demonstrated during the workshop for some proposals and participants' engagement in revisiting those that did not feel right to produce better concepts seems to demonstrate there is space for interaction design that is ethnographically motivated and aesthetically harmonious with the meaning of home.

References

1. Aipperspach, R., Hooker, B., Woodruff, A. Data Souvenirs: Environmental psychology and reflective design. Int. J. of HCS (2011) 69 (5) 338--349.
2. Banks, R., Sellen, A. Shoebox: Mixing storage and display of digital images in the home. Proc. of TEI'09 (2009) 35--40.
3. Bell, C. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions, Oxford University Press (1997).
4. Bell, G. Gemmell, J. A. Digital life. Scientific American, March (2007).
5. Bowen, S., Petrelli, D. Remembering Today Tomorrow: Exploring the Human-Centred Design of Digital Mementos. I. J. Human-Computer Studies (2011) 69 (5)
6. Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rochberg-Halton The Meaning of Things -- Domestic symbols and the self. (1981) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
7. Deegan, M., Tanner, S. (eds) Digital Preservation. (2006) Facet Publishing.
8. Dijck, J. van Mediated Memories in the Digital Age. Standford, CA: Standford University Press. (2007).
9. Dunne, A. Hertzian Tales. The MIT Press. (2006).
10. Fischer, M. Emergent forms of life and the anthropological voice. Duke University Press (2003).
11. Frohlich, D., Murphy, R. The Memory Box. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 4 (2000) 238--240.
12. Gaver, W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Law, A., Pennington, S. and Villar N. The History Tablecloth: Illuminating domestic activity. In Proc. DIS'06 (2006).
13. Gaver W. et al. Threshold devices: Looking out from the home. In Proc. CHI'08 (2008) 1429--1438.
14. Grimes, A. and Harper, R. Celebratory technology: new directions for food research in HCI. In Proc. CHI'08, ACM Press (2008), 467--476.
15. Helmes, J., Hummel, C., and Sellen, A. The Other Brother: Re-Experiencing Spontaneous Moments from Domestic Life. In Proc. TEI 2009, (2009), 233--240.
16. Halbwachs, M. On collective memory. Chicago University Press (1992).
17. Hoefnagels, S., et al. Friction in scheduling and coordinating lives of families: designing from an interaction metaphor. In Proc. DIS'04 (2004) 321--324.
18. Hoven, E. van, Eggen, B. Informing augmented memory system design through autobiographical memory theory. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 12(6) (2008) 433--443.
19. Kasser, T. & Sheldon, K. What Makes for a Merry Christmas? J. of Happiness Studies (2002) 3, 313--29.
20. Kirk, D., Sellen, A. On Human Remains: Values and Practice in the Home Archiving of Cherished Objects. TOCHI 17 (3) (2010) 1--43.
21. Kopytoff, I. The cultural biography of things: Commoditization as process. In Appadurai, A. (ed.) The social life of things. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (1986).
22. Kuper, A. The English Christmas and the Family: Time out and Alternative Realities. In Miller, D. (ed.) Unwrapping Christmas. Clarendon Press. (1993).
23. Lindley, S., et al. "Oh and how things just don't change, the more things stay the same": Reflections on SenseCam images 18 months after capture. Int. J. of HCS (2011) 311--323.
24. Mann, S. Continuous lifelog capture of personal experience with EyeTap. Proc. of CARPE (2004).
25. Marcus, G. Ethnography through thick and thin. Princeton University Press. (1998).
26. Mark, G., Gonzalez, V., and Harris, J. No task left behind?: examining the nature of fragmented work. In Proc. of CHI'05 (2005) 321--330.
27. Marshall, C. How People Manage Personal Information Over a Lifetime. In Jones and Teevan (eds.) Personal Information Management. UW Press (2007) 57--75.
28. Miller, D. A Theory of Christmas. In Miller, D. (ed.) Unwrapping Christmas. Clarendon Press, UK, 1993.
29. Miller, D. (ed.) Unwrapping Christmas. Clarendon Press, UK, 1993.
30. Nunes, M., Greenberg, S., Neustaedter, C. Using physical memorabilia as opportunities to move into collocated digital photo-sharing. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (2009) 67 (12), 1087--1111.
31. Odom, W., Banks, R., Kirk, D. Reciprocity, Deep Storage, and Letting Go: Opportunities for Designing Interactions with Inherited Digital Materials. Interactions, Sept-Oct (2010) 31--34.
32. Odom, W., Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J. Designing for Dynamic Family Structures: Divorced Families and Interactive Systems. In Proc. DIS'10 (2010).
33. Peesapati, S. T., et al. Pensieve: Supporting Everyday Reminiscence. Proc of CHI'10 (2010)
34. Petrelli, D., Whittaker, S., Brokemeier, J. Autotopography: What can Physical Mementos tell us about Digital Memories? Proc. of CHI '08 (2008) 53--62.
35. Petrelli, D., van den Hoven, E., Whittaker, S. Making History: Intentional Capturing of Future Memories. Proc. of CHI '09 (2009) 1723--1732.
36. Petrelli, D., Light, A. Memory Baubles and History Tinsel. DOME -- Digital Objects of Memory, Int. Conf. on Intelligent Environment IE09 (2009)
37. Petrelli, D. and Whittaker, S. Family Memories in the Home: Contrasting Physical and Digital Mementos. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 14, 2 (2010)
38. Petrelli, D., Villar, N., Kalnikaite, V., Dib, L., Whittaker, S. MF Radio: Family Interplay with Sonic Mementos. Proc. of CHI '10 (2010) 2371--2380.
39. Sarvas, R., Frohlich, D. From Snapshots to Social Media -- The Changing Picture of Domestic Photography. Springer, 2011.
40. Searle-Chatterjee, M. Christmas Cards and the Construction of Social Relations in Britain Today. In Miller, D. (ed.) Unwrapping Christmas. Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK, 1993.
41. Voida, A., Carpendale, S., Greenberg, S. The individual and the group in console gaming. Proc. of CSCW (2010) 371--380.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing