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Digital Technologies and the Emotional Family

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Patrick OlivierORCiD, Julie Lees

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Abstract

We present an alternative view of family communication that foregrounds both the emotional lives of family members and that which is of personal significance to them. Through the reflections of our participants, and our design response to these, we have used the design of digital jewellery as a window on the family as an emotional entity. In doing so we escape conventional assumptions as to how technology might support family life, and instead propose alternative forms of technology that serve as acceptable sites for highly personalised and personally significant emotional statements. Two designs are presented, Traces and Blossom, which are both responses to the lives and personal accounts of our participants, and a challenge to the conventions of interaction design. By reflecting on our designs we identify and unpick assumptions as to the nature of the digital technology with a view to opening up a design space that places an emphasis on both the individual and the authentic character of our emotional lives.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Olivier P, Wallace J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

Year: 2009

Volume: 67

Issue: 2

Pages: 204-214

ISSN (print): 1071-5819

ISSN (electronic): 1095-9300

Publisher: Academic Press

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2008.09.009

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2008.09.009

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