The resourcefulness of everyday design

Abstract

We discuss our study that looks at family members as everyday designers. We explain the design actions of family members to be creative, as evidenced by the resourceful appropriation of artifacts and surroundings, the ongoing adaptation of systems and routines through design-in-use that allows emergent properties to arise and addresses individual needs, and how implicit understanding and explicit tests occur for judging quality. We present a preliminary analysis of design implications in the area of interaction design in the home. Our findings are based on a five-month ethnographic study of three families.