LEARNING FROM LOSEABLES

Abstract

There are a number of themes and descriptive categorisations of devices in HCI that act as positive common places. These include portable, wearable, and ubiquitous devices. In the this paper the category ‘loseables’, which includes misplaceables, forgetables and stealables, is offered as an alternative formulation of the self same devices. In a recent keynote address David Benyon proposed that HCI practitioners could utilise their own craft skill and tacit knowledge as users of devices to generate questions about design. He also suggested that there was a place for constructive criticism in relation to design that entails a role similar to that of the literary critic. The critical reflexivity method presented in this paper draws inspiration from these comments, and in combination with Philip Agre’s idea of HCI as a ‘critical technical practice’, offers an exercise in reflective HCI. It explores the essentially contested meaning inherent in devices and, in so doing, presents not only commentary on design itself - along with the simultaneously constructive and constrictive nature of such terms - but also, and more importantly, generates questions, insights and suggestions for design.

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