Empowerment through seamfulness: smart phones in everyday life

TLDR

The study challenges assumptions of HCI and ubiquitous computing by revealing new research potential in how users exploit multiple smartphone features and seamfulness in everyday life. The authors aim to investigate how working adults adapt and adopt multifunctional smartphone functions to fit their needs and lifestyles. They conducted interview and diary studies with working adults to observe how smartphones are used pragmatically and seamfully across different devices and features. Participants used smartphones in highly individualized ways, mixing, adapting, adding, or ignoring functions to create personalized portfolios that blend with their daily lives.

Abstract

In this paper, we describe research into use of multifunctional mobile phones by working adults and posit the device as a plausible realization of ubiquitous computing. We investigate how users actively adapt and adopt the different functions in smart phones to suit their needs and lifestyles. Through an interview and diary study, we discover how the smart phone is used in pragmatic and seamful ways, regardless of the interface of the specific phone selected or the particular features available. Users used phones in highly individual manners; mixed and adapted existing functions to meet their own priorities; added some functions and ignored others to create their own portfolio; and blended their use with the specifics of their everyday lives. While these data challenge some assumptions of human–computer interaction and ubiquitous computing, it also presents new research potential in terms of understanding how users take advantage of the multiple features in smart phone devices and how they utilize seamfulness in everyday smart phones practices.