Living in a zoo

This paper reflects on a small user study conducted to learn about diversity of meanings, values and experiences people associate with different kinds of contemporary domestic technology. The general goal was to inform a research project's early stages about challenges when designing novel technology for the sensitive home environment. By adapting a cultural probes approach participants were given the self-documentation packages with the tasks concerning the various angles of domestic life. Through the tasks the idea was to get the participants more aware of their domestic surroundings and of sense-making related to use and display of domestic objects. One assignment was to think of the home as a zoo and of the domestic objects as animals by attaching animal stickers to represent objects. Analysis of the reasoning behind the animal choices brought out five categories: appearance, activity, association, experience, and emotion.