Adopting the Unknown through the Known Supporting user interaction of non-idiomatic technologies in exhibitions through known idioms of conventional technologies

Abstract

When designing for the next wave of technologies, a challenge is how to culturally appropriate the semantic idioms of new technology to users with little experiential knowledge about the technology. This is especially a challenge, when more and more attractions are becoming unmanned, with little possibility for guidance. In this paper, we hypothesise that non-idiomatic technologies can be supported by leveraging existing idiomatic knowledge on more conventional technologies and thus lower the participation barrier. In two cases collected with several Danish attractions we experimented with supporting design with traditional technology, such as video signs, social media and physical signs to assess how idiomatic formats could facilitate the use of the non-idiomatic technology. We contribute with a set of lessons learned for how non-idiomatic design situations can be facilitated through using the users existing knowledge with more conventional technological practices.