Stream of Presence: An Awareness Device
Authors
Haurholm, Isabella Sværke ; Hall, Sebastian Rytter ; Nielsen, Daniel Nørby
Term
4. Term
Publication year
2023
Submitted on
2023-06-09
Pages
59
Abstract
This thesis examines whether an awareness device can support break-taking for people working from home, where the spontaneous social pauses of co-located offices are often lost. We ask: How can an interaction design prompt break-taking by supporting awareness of coworkers’ workflow in home working? Building on related work and the concepts of presence and social connectedness, we defined five design principles—ambience, dynamic, simplicity, privacy, and connectedness—and followed Buxton’s Design Funnel through ideation, paper prototypes, and material exploration. The process led to a WiFi-connected prototype, Stream of Presence (SoP), which uses LEDs to display coworkers’ activity levels to increase a sense of presence and suggest appropriate times for breaks. We conducted a field experiment in three homes and collected qualitative data about participants’ experiences with remote work and the prototype. Results indicate that SoP did not increase break-taking; activity-based awareness did not change behavior because users attended more to their own activity than to coworkers’. These findings suggest rethinking how activity is represented, reprioritizing design principles, clarifying the target user group, and evaluating with a larger sample. The thesis contributes a concrete design and insights into designing for social breaks in a home-working context.
Dette speciale undersøger, om en bevidsthedsskabende enhed kan støtte pausetagning for folk, der arbejder hjemmefra, hvor de spontane, sociale pauser fra det fysiske kontor ofte går tabt. Vi formulerer spørgsmålet: Hvordan kan et interaktionsdesign fremme pausetagning ved at støtte bevidsthed om kollegaers arbejdsflow ved hjemmearbejde? På baggrund af relateret arbejde og begreberne ‘presence’ og ‘social connectedness’ udviklede vi fem designprincipper—ambience, dynamic, simplicity, privacy og connectedness—og fulgte Buxton’s Design Funnel med idéudvikling, papirprototyper og materialekoncepter. Dette ledte til en WiFi-forbundet prototype, Stream of Presence (SoP), der via lysdioder viser kollegaers aktivitetsniveau for at øge nærvær og pege på passende tidspunkter for pauser. Vi gennemførte et felteksperiment i tre hjem og indsamlede kvalitativ data om deltagernes oplevelser med hjemmearbejde og brug af prototypen. Resultaterne viser, at SoP ikke øgede pausetagning; at bruge arbejdsaktivitet som grundlag for bevidsthed ændrede ikke adfærd, da brugerne var mere optagede af deres egen aktivitet end kollegaers. Fundene peger på behov for at gentænke repræsentationen af aktivitet, justere prioriteringen af designprincipper, afklare den relevante brugergruppe samt evaluere med større prøvestørrelse. Specialet bidrager med et konkret design og erfaringer om at designe for sociale pauser i en hjemmearbejds-kontekst.
[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]