Ict in everyday life

Abstract

The history of innovation processes related to information and communication technologies (ICT) is an interesting mix of both massive market failures and successful and even groundbreaking innovations with the potential to bring about radical shifts in everyday life. To forecast these successes or failures is seen as extremely difficult, particularly because of the assumed whimsical and unpredictable behavior of future users. However, in our view user behavior is not so much unpredictable, but badly understood. What we need is an approach to understand the dynamics of user behavior. This enables us to understand the possible contradictions or discrepancies between the perception of user needs and behavior in the early stages of technological innovation, and the actual social practices of users in which these innovations have to find their place. To illustrate this with an example: the huge success of Short Message Services (SMS), particularly among young people, came largely as a surprise to the industry, and thus cannot be understood by looking at the way user needs and behavior were perceived in the design and marketing stages of the ICT application. In these stages, the 'ideal user' of SMS was imagined as a businessman who used SMS rationally and instrumentally for time-saving and planning purposes. Among young people, however, SMS became extremely popular for continuous connectivity with their peers and for creating their own symbolic environment. And this in spite of the design of the interface and service, which are not particularly suitable for these purposes, at least at first sight. To understand such 'irrational' consumer behavior we have to understand the social and cultural practices of young people in which these applications are embedded, and the way the design of the actual artifact/application interacts with these practices. In this contribution we present an approach towards understanding the way ICT are incorporated into the social practices of everyday life, by focusing on the role of the user. Central to this approach is how users are involved in both the design and appropriation stage of new technologies. Empirical and theoretical knowledge of user involvement will enable us to understand the incorporation (or the lack of incorporation) of ICT in everyday life. The approach also considers the usefulness of experiments with user involvement in design processes to intervene with or influence the embedding of ICT into everyday life. This approach thus consists of three key elements: 1. The understanding of the configuration of users in the design and diffusion process of ICT: in other words, the perceived role of the user in ICT-related innovation processes; 2. the understanding of the appropriation and adoption of ICT by users (or the 'domestication' of ICT); and 3. the use of experimentation to understand (and possibly influence) the dynamic relationship between configuration and appropriation (or: the design-domestication interface). We shall illustrate the key elements of this approach by using examples from our own research about acceptance and uses of ICT within the (present and future) home environment, specifically from user-oriented design experiments (such as the 'Media@Home'-project). © 2006 Springer.