Design for Cool: Workshop

Abstract

HCI2011 - Workshop A important characteristic of todays interactive technologies and applications is that they can be adopted and appropriated in different ways. Designing interactive technology that lends itself to user personalisation and allows appropriation in novel ways is not straightforward. The designer must somehow anticpate the changes a user may desire and consider the adoption/appropriation scenarios which may emerge in order to ensure they are catered for. Within this space, large numbers of users personalising and appropriating everyday technolgies in different ways is a very interesting area of work especially where this is motivated by a desire to make a technology, or the behaviours around that technology, a must have item among a specific social group. For groups such as teenagers, being percieved as 'cool' by their peers can have a very significant impact on their actions. The Design for Cool Workshop (COOL2011) is about designing technologies and interactions that either themselves become cool or that allow users to appropriate them in cool ways. Aims & Goals The aim of this workshop is to stimulate debate on, and increase knowledge of, designing for cool. The workshop will aim to answer the following three questions; What is cool? How do artefacts become cool? What are its essential characteristics and what makes a product, or a behaviour around a product cool? How can ordinary items be appropriated in 'cool ways? How are we to design for appropriation in cool ways? The workshop is intended to open a debate about some key themes that are specific to cool but also have an interesting meaning throughout the HCI design space Discussion will include the extent to which an attribute can be designed for, can be specified by characteristics that do not rely too much on interpretation and to explore the most appropriate methods for design in this space. The workshop organisers are currently engaged in a project to design technologies for teenagers and whereas Cool design is surely about a wide range of products and applications.