Design of touchable services

Ingeborg, Una and Einar:

Concept-description: – a sketch for “The Internet of Things at Home”

You can download the presentation here.

Inspired by A. Galloway´s post “The rituals of touching” and “The Liturgy of Things” we have done contextual-research on the home and the things within it. We have focused on the Special Things; the extra nice ones that we like

We have tracked the Things backwards to when they were bought and when they were brought into the home. We have looked at their stories and the everyday rituals surrounding them.

When are we sure that we have made a good purchase? What is the first thing you do with new shoes? Where do you first place new books? When do you remove the labels from your extra nice new jeans? Where does these end up? Where is new kitchenware placed? How does you listen to new records for the first time? Where are they placed? How does one make metal wish-lists, and what does this do to the things we buy? How does things travel within the home, and within our attention? When are new things no longer new things? Where does nice labels and extra buttons go when you by a new shirt? And where do they end up?

How is buying nice things and placing them in your home different from stereotype shopping? We think there might be a cultural difference, and that buying nice things from nice people in nice shops builds a stronger emotive/personal relationship to the things we choose to acquire.

What helps building these personal relationships? (Stories, rituals, contexts, social belonging, communities, cult?) How can we enhance this relationship by adding a layer of digital information? How can this layer be embedded within already existing rituals? NFC-interaction in the home?

What we are working towards is a sketch for “The Internet of Things at Home” (or a domestic implementation of ThingLink.)

(We have based our research on analyzes, photos and mapping within our homes, and have looked at some specialized brands and (indie)shops that offer user experience out of the ordinary. We find that our ideas are easiest to stretch when working with the subcultural and those with special interests).

Tilstedeværelsen av ting i hjemmet:

Nye ting og ting du bryr deg om: liggende fremme, hengende på skapdøren, over stolryggen, en bok som ennå ikke er satt inn i bokhyllen men fremdeles står på utsiden markerer at den er ny.

I bruk: lettest tilgjenglig.

Spesielle steder for hvor du tar vare på det som ikke kan kastes med det samme: som magasin og aviskurv.

Et sted for småting du ønsker å ta vare, men som ikke har noen fast plass, eks en skål.

Det du har glemt – innerst i skapet ditt.

Ønsket er at de tingene du skaffer deg skal forbli tydlige for deg i sin tilstedeværelse, ikke forsvine bakerst i skapet – være tilstede visuelt og i minnet.

Gå til innkjøp av et par jeans:

Kjøper utvalgte jeans, tar de med hjem. Labelen på buksene leses av leser i hjemmet. Leseren sender informasjon til feks. tv ditt slik at du har muligheten til å se en info filmsnutt når det måtte passe og du måtte ønske, om hvordan å behandle buksen din eller hvordan den virkelig er produsert. Data blir og sendt til ditt digitale bibliotek, “The internet of Things”. Dette biblioteket er utgangspunkt for et community du kan ta del av, og aktiviteter blir ført inn i kalenderen din.
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(a preliminary scenario)

SCENARIO#1: Buying a great pair of jeans

Part 1: The Buy.
You are in an exotic jeanswear-shop somewhere in Oslo (alone). If there really is such a thing as a perfect pair of jeans, this must be their homeplanet. You consult the shop-owner (sideburns, quiff and a golden tooth…) And then you find it, the Holy Grail of Denim! You have never heard about the brand before. You pay for it with your NFC-payphone. The shop-owner puts in a black plastic bag.

Part 2: The Doubt!
You get home and opens the black bag. Its content: 2 flyers (one for a concert organized by the shop-owner, the other for his birthday-party) and 1 pair of jeans. You turn your attention to the jeans: you try it on without taking the labels off. You try to look at your behind in the bathroom-mirror. Tricky. You realize that you might have been a bit quick in the shop´s fitting room… are these jeans really perfect? They might be a bit too loose? Or too tight? Are they the right color? You get unsure about your hastily purchase.. The jeans are okey, but are they more than that? There is no-one home to ask. Was this wasted money?

Part 3: Additional Information #1
You find a comb in the back pocket! The shop-owner put it there when he folded the jeans. A nice surprise. You feel better about the jeans, you fold up the legs and try it on with your favorite shoes. The comb is NFC-enabled. You read it with your NFC-phone and put the phone on your NFC-tray on your coffee-table. (This downloads a small behind-the-scenes presentation of the shop to your hidden media-center-computer). You watch the presentation on your TV.

Part 4: Additional Information #2 (bonus track)
You finally decide that these jeans are great after all +++

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*TBA*
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Graphs:

Time / Attention

Time / Space

Time / the Digital / Additional Information