Abstract
Changing patterns of both work-related mobility and do-mestic arrangements mean that 'mobile workers' face chal-lenges to support and engage in family life whilst travelling for work. Phatic devices offer some potential to provide connection at a distance alongside existing communications infrastructure. Through a bespoke design process, incorpo-rating phases of design ethnography, critical technical prac-tice and provotyping we have developed Ritual Machines I and II as material explorations of mobile workers' lives and practices. In doing this we sought to reflect upon the prac-tices through which families accomplish mobile living, the values they place in technology for doing 'family' at a distance and to draw insights in to the potential roles of digital technology in supporting them. We frame the design of our phatic devices in discussion of processes of bespoke design, offer advice on supporting mobile workers when travelling and articulate the values of making a technology at home when designing for domestic and mobile settings.
Highlights
As we progress into the 21st Century patterns of both living and work-related mobility are changing across most industrialized nations [26, 28]
We wished to speculate on how phatic technologies might be a resource for re-engagement with these activities when travelling for work, and to further understand the contingencies of living and reconciling a life as both a mobile worker and a family member
Perhaps important to take from such discussions though is an understanding that whilst the phatics themselves are obviously designed with separated individuals in mind they often fail to critically consider the placing of technology within the ‘home’ as a mobile and contingent locale and there is less emphasis on understanding the specific contingencies of the mobile worker and family-person
Summary
As we progress into the 21st Century patterns of both living and work-related mobility are changing across most industrialized nations [26, 28]. We wished to speculate on how phatic technologies might be a resource for re-engagement with these activities when travelling for work, and to further understand the contingencies of living and reconciling a life as both a mobile worker and a family member These interests form against a backdrop of the developing Internet-of-Things (IoT) and explicit calls to understand how we can socialize connected devices designing them with ‘end-users’ in mind [31, 42]. Resonating with such approaches is a concern for material engagement, exploring interaction through, and with, things in domestic settings Responding to this we have adopted an explicitly Research Through Design orientation [14] to our work, where we utilise a bespoke design approach which incorporates critical technical practice [45] and has an affinity with elements of provotyping [3], to critically reflect upon the role of technology in supporting mobile workers’ lives. We provide notes on the importance of making technology at home in HCI design work
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
