The domestic economy: a broader unit of analysis for end user programming

  • Authors:

  • Jennifer A. Rode;Eleanor F. Toye;Alan F. Blackwell

  • Affiliations:

  • University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA;Intel Research Cambridge Cambridge, UK;University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

  • Venue:
  • CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Domestic ubicomp applications often assume individual users will program and configure their technology in isolation, decoupled from complex domestic environments in which they are situated. To investigate this assumption, we conducted a two week study of VCR use by eight families. Each household member old enough to write completed a diary, interviews were conducted before and after, and information on demographics and appliance ownership was collected. Our key finding supports the notion of the domestic economy and the trading of programming expertise. We use the Attention Investment paradigm, and discuss how the model fits with multi-user programming situations. We discuss the importance of the parent v/s child roles in VCR use, as well as, the tension between direct manipulation (e.g. pressing record) and programming ahead of time. We propose that future work on end user programming must focus on the household as a domestic system rather than on the individual.