On Typologies of Situated Interaction

Abstract

Consideration of context raises issues of design. The complexity of these issues calls for a typological approach, in which conventional configuration of space plays a greater role. Theories of phenomenology, embodiment, and periphery underlie the argument that we must design for recurrent situations of everyday life, and that we must do so in a manner quite different from the anytime/anyplace universality so often held out as an objective for ubiquitous computing. Architecture, the more established discipline of physical context, demonstrates the importance of type to usable design. Not merely a functional classification, typology here is a generative abstraction, by which good design creates new instances from inexhaustible themes. This essay explains typology as a design philosophy, toward which its suggests possible steps forward from current developments in context-aware applications of computing.