Interaction Ecologies

1
Interaction Ecologies

• Henrik Enquist, Konrad Tollmar.
• Lund University
• Aino Vonge Corry
• Aarhus University

2
Complementing visions

• Ubiquitous computing
• invisibility
• scalability
• construction
• heterogeneity
• change
• automation

• Palpable computing
• visibility
• understandability
• de-construction
• coherence
• stability
• user control

3
Application areas

• Healthcare
• Emergency services
• Landscape architecture

www.ist-palcom.org
4
Case study

• Pregnancy and early maternity
• Skejby Hospital, Denmark

5
Its not only complex

• Some issues
• Paper work
• Coordination
• Visibility
• Locations
• Participation

6
its a jungle !
7
Designers to the rescue!
8
Work

• Field studies
• Workshops
• Cultural probes
• Prototyping

9
Experimental prototypes
10
Prototype design
11
Some findings

• Design issues
• Yet another device!
• Swiss army knife
• It is something special
• Empowerment
• Gender issues
• New (mental) model of information and interaction

12
Aspects of interaction

• Privacy / control
• Overview / inspection
• Clinical / personal data

13
To sum up

• Lots of devices
• Lots of people
• Lots of activities
• Lots of possibilities
• Open but fairly stable situation
• Two related examples

14
(No Transcript)
15
Vision of the Future
16
Some issues

• How are we affected by this situation in our
  everyday life?
• How does this inform us as designers in a
  constructive way?
• How will this change our view on artefacts and
  their use?
• How do we communicate this change of the way we
  relate to clusters of artefacts?

17
Ecology in biology

• applied ecology, the practice of employing
  ecological principles and understanding to solve
  real world problems (includes agroecology and
  conservation biology)
• biogeochemistry, effect of biota on global
  chemistry, and the cycles of matter and energy
  that transport the Earth's chemical components in
  time and space.
• biogeography, the study of the geographic
  distributions of species 
• chemical ecology, which deals with the ecological
  role of biological chemicals used in a wide range
  of areas including defense against predators and
  attraction of mates
• conservation ecology, which studies how to reduce
  the risk of species extinction
• ecological succession, which focuses on
  understanding directed vegetation change
• ecophysiology which studies the interaction of
  physiological traits with the abiotic
  environment
• ecotoxicology, which looks at the ecological role
  of toxic chemicals (often pollutants, but also
  naturally occurring compounds)
• evolutionary ecology or ecoevolution which looks
  at evolutionary changes in the context of the
  populations and communities in which the
  organisms exist
• fire ecology, which looks at the role of fire in
  the environment of plants and animals and its
  effect on ecological communities
• functional ecology, the study of the roles, or
  functions, that certain species (or groups
  thereof) play in an ecosystem
• global ecology, which examines ecological
  phenomena at the largest possible scale,
  addressing macroecological questions
• landscape ecology, which studies the interactions
  between discrete elements of a landscape
• macroecology, the study of large scale phenomena
  
• marine ecology, and aquatic ecology, where the
  dominant environmental milieu is water
• microbial ecology, the ecology of
  micro-organisms
• microecology, the study of small scale phenomena
  
• paleoecology, which seeks to understand the
  relationships between species in fossil
  assemblages
• restoration ecology, which attempts to understand
  the ecological basis needed to restore impaired
  or damaged ecosystems

18
Interdisciplinary ecology

• Ecological Engineering
• Ecological Economics
• Human Ecology
• Social Ecology
• Anthropological Ecology

19
Metaphoric ecology

• Media Ecology
• Media environments
• Information Ecology
• (Nardi ODay)
• Library as an example
• Ecology of Artefacts
• (Krippendorff)
• Species of artefacts
• Ecological meanings
• Different interaction types

20
Key properties

• System
• Diversity
• Coevolution
• Keystone species
• Locality

21
Possible (inter)actor categories

• Software represents any component such as
  computational code, policies, norms, rules,
  procedures, practices, and any other formal or
  informal rules that defines the way in which the
  different components of the system interact with
  each other and with the external environment.
• Hardware represents any physical and
  nonhuman/non-living component of the system, such
  as equipment, vehicles, tools, manuals, and
  signs.
• Liveware represents any human (or other living)
  components in their relational and
  communicational aspects.

22
Affordance

• The affordance of anything is a
• specific combination of the physical
• properties of the environment that is
• uniquely suited to a given animal
• (Gibson 1977)
• Relationships and properties (Gibson)
• Perceived affordance (Norman)

23
Interaction Ecology

• Focus on interaction and meaning
• Making sense of complex relationships and
  activities
• Its a living thing
• Semi-permeable system
• Dynamically created and maintained
• Non-hierarchical interactors
• Actants (ANT)

24
Where do we go from here?

• ...model for inspiration
• ...model for informing designers
• ...model for evaluation of a design
• ...model for describing a design
• (fill in the blanks)

25
Thank you
Questions ? (please )