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Consumer to Creator: How Households Buy Furniture to Inform Design and Fabrication Interfaces

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Emerging technologies for digital design and fabrication let people participate in the making of objects that were previously dominated by professional designers. A growing body of work in HCI provides understanding in the activities of designing and making by novices and in maker communities. However, we know little about how casual users might employ these technologies with the goal of having an object in their home that satisfies a need. We present a long-term qualitative study in which we followed 16 households during a purchasing process of furniture items for their homes. We looked into how families discover what they need, find solutions, realize a solution in their house and put it to use. The results provide insights into their design activities and workflow and we identify two distinct stages: understanding needs and prototyping a solution. Based on the findings, we discuss the social practice of acquiring and appropriating furniture in the home and within families, and identify design opportunities for digital design and fabrication to support people as they create the objects they need, want and desire.

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  • (2024)pARam: Leveraging Parametric Design in Extended Reality to Support the Personalization of Artifacts for Personal FabricationProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642083(1-22)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2017
    7138 pages
    ISBN:9781450346559
    DOI:10.1145/3025453
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    Published: 02 May 2017

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    Author Tags

    1. design
    2. fabrication
    3. furniture
    4. purchase
    5. qualitative study

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    • National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)

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    CHI '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 600 of 2,400 submissions, 25%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)pARam: Leveraging Parametric Design in Extended Reality to Support the Personalization of Artifacts for Personal FabricationProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642083(1-22)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2024)CMLsearch: Semantic visual search and simulation through segmented colour, material, and lighting in interior imageJournal of Computational Design and Engineering10.1093/jcde/qwae11412:1(179-299)Online publication date: 30-Dec-2024
    • (2023)Tangible, Public, and Miniature Creative Exchanges: What HCI and Design Researchers Can Learn From the Free Little Art Gallery MovementProceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3591196.3593433(413-428)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
    • (2022)ShapeFindAR: Exploring In-Situ Spatial Search for Physical Artifact Retrieval using Mixed RealityProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517682(1-12)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
    • (2022)Understanding the Roles of Intelligent Product-Customization Systems Through Expert Interviews[ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7_76(1153-1169)Online publication date: 6-Nov-2022
    • (2020)The Upcycled Home: Removing Barriers to Lightweight Modification of the Home's Everyday ObjectsProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376314(1-13)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
    • (2019)Towards the Meaningful 3D-Printed Object: Understanding the Materiality of 3D PrintsDesign, User Experience, and Usability. Practice and Case Studies10.1007/978-3-030-23535-2_39(533-552)Online publication date: 26-Jul-2019
    • (2018)Interactive and Situated Guidelines to Help Users Design a Personal Desk that Fits Their BodiesProceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3196709.3196725(637-650)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2018
    • (2018)Couples Designing their Living Room TogetherProceedings of the 9th Augmented Human International Conference10.1145/3174910.3174930(1-9)Online publication date: 6-Feb-2018

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