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Homes For Life: A Design Fiction Probe

Published: 23 October 2016 Publication History

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of 'design fiction probes', critical narratives to elicit open-ended responses from potential future users of proposed technologies. Inspired and guided by academic literature, such a fictional narrative allows the reader to explore potential consequences of the use of technologies before they actually exist. The method is illustrated by a design fiction on the topic of smart houses and their potential applications for chronic conditions, such as dementia. Based on constant monitoring and automated responses, these technologies have been criticized on ethical grounds. As these devices are not yet widely commercially available, little is known about their real-world impact. By bringing together what is known to write a fictional account from acquisition to end of use, the design fiction can be used both for research or the design process. Potential uses are presented within this paper.

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    NordiCHI '16: Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
    October 2016
    1045 pages
    ISBN:9781450347631
    DOI:10.1145/2971485
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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    Published: 23 October 2016

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    Author Tags

    1. Dementia
    2. design fiction
    3. smart home technology

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    NordiCHI '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 58 of 231 submissions, 25%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 379 of 1,572 submissions, 24%

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    • (2024)Metaverse Perspectives from Japan: A Participatory Speculative Design Case StudyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869398:CSCW2(1-51)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
    • (2024)A Year in Energy: Imagining Energy Community Participation with a Collaborative Design FictionProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685355(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Caring for a companion as a form of self-care. Exploring the design space for irritating companion technologies for mental healthProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685343(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
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    • (2023)Postcards from the Future: Speculating the Future of Built Environments with CitizensProceedings of the 11th International Conference on Communities and Technologies10.1145/3593743.3593784(215-226)Online publication date: 29-May-2023
    • (2023)Exploring the Reciprocal Emotional Interaction Between Humans and Affective Technology Through Design Fictions and “Speculative Entanglement”Collaboration Technologies and Social Computing10.1007/978-3-031-42141-9_3(36-51)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2023
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