This paper looks at a new media for interpersonal communication and the design of a technology to foster relationships and awareness among societal members. The paper describes both an ethnographic approach to the design of this system and the evaluation of this application.
The ethnographic study conducted by the authors began with a set of observations / field studies in the homes of 10 participants in order to understand communication patterns of family members and artifacts for staying in touch. The second approach to the ethnographic study involved "situation scenarios" in which participants were given scenarios and asked to describe their actions in these types of activities. The situation scenarios were videotaped for future reference. Based on their observations, the authors developed three different prototypes based on their observation that users used light to indicate their availability to others in the neighborhood as well as their need for privacy.
Of the three prototypes, the authors developed a design called the 6 th sense, comprising of two lamps with sensors. The first lamp can detect motion and send signals (in terms of brightness to the second lamp) to show that someone is home. Alternately, a dim lamp means the person is not home. This prototype was evaluated in three families (each consisting of two households) for a total of 10-14 days. Participants were asked to use a daily log to record their thoughts and feelings. After the evaluation, the authors used the log book in conjunction with user interviews to learn how users used the system, as well as their thoughts and opinions of them.
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