Individuation and diversity: the need for idiographic HCI

Abstract

Nowadays, our life is characterised by an increasing complexity and variety in the use of technology: highly idiosyncratic experiences in technology use have become the rule rather than exceptions. Such ‘normal’ variety has an impact on the field of human–computer interaction (HCI) by posing a new challenge, that of ‘individuation’, i.e. passing from research and design for the ‘average user’, to research and design for ‘individuals’. We maintain that HCI is in the middle of such a transition, and that it should actively develop proper means to address the complexity of idiosyncratic uses of technology. Such a transition will be marked by the complementary between ‘nomothetic’ and ‘idiographic’ approaches.

Keywords:

• human–computer interaction
• diversity
• individuation
• personalisation
• idiographic research

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their interesting comments and recommendations, which really helped improving the initial version of this paper. We are also grateful to all the colleagues and friends for their kindly support, especially those who provided their data for the mini-survey. A personal thank goes from Simone Pozzi to E. Polizzi di Sorrentino, for all the support provided and for the helpful discussions on many early ideas.