Hi everyone, my name is Aloha. On behalf of Alessandro, Daniel
and Margot, I will present to you our paper entitled "From
Collaborative Habituation to Everyday Togetherness: A
Long-term Study of Use of the Messaging Kettle". Let me begin
by introducing the Messaging Kettle. This is the Messaging
Kettle. It is an Internet of Things prototype used to explore
connections through things. The Internet of Things is a notion
of equipping objects with internet accessible
identification and data sharing capabilities. The Messaging
Kettle is an ambient device designed to connect two distant
persons over the routine of boiling the kettle to make tea.
The Messaging Kettle augments the user's existing kettle
through a Kettle Mate that senses the kettle temperature,
and a Smart Tea Box that embeds messaging through handwritten
messages or scribbles. Although CHI research has explored many
forms of phatic, tangible and embodied forms of connection,
almost all trials have been short-term and failed to build
sustain connection. We wanted to explore how and whether an IoT
device such as this could build and sustain connection over
time. The idea of the Messaging Kettle was conceived during a
visit to an older woman's home who loves tea. Here are some
photos during that visit. This visit opened up the idea of
connecting with someone through their habits and habituated
objects. The Messaging Kettle design was also conceived to
explore a divergent path from the common technology design
"solution" for older adults - the use of monitoring
technology. There is a proliferation of design
"solutions" for older people that involves tracking and
monitoring them remotely, just like this one. The monitoring
system uses sensors placed around the home of older people
connected to a central hub, waiting for atypical data or
incidents that would alert a remote staff and may also alert
carers or family members. Older people are passive recipients of
this technology being observed from a distance. The Messaging
Kettle is an example of a shift of framing the problem and
solution through an innovation developed from a participation
and co-design approach. The Messaging Kettle prototype shows
a device that shifts the notion of remote passive monitoring to
a technology that engages and fosters reciprocity. As
mentioned, the Messaging Kettle comes in two connected pairs of
two Kettle Mates and two Tea Boxes. The Kettle Mate glows
when the remote presence kettle is hot, indicating we are in the
kitchen in the process of preparing tea or coffee. The
Messaging Kettle is a very specific and special form of
connection between two loved ones separated by distance. To
learn the role of an IoT prototype, such as the Messaging
Kettle in the life of older people, we conducted long term
home trials between four mother and daughter pairs. In the time
of writing, the range of use is between two months to two years.
Two of the pairs are mother and researcher-daughter pairs. We
discuss the autobiographical design and research aspect of
this work in the paper. In the interest of time, I will focus
on the findings and the contribution of this work. Let
me share with you a quote from Kelly, one of the trial
participants, she said, I think if I didn't have the Messaging
Kettle in the kitchen, it would feel as if a sense of being cut
off and loneliness. But having that light, you have that sense
of movement as if you are not alone. The long term home trial
of the Messaging Kettle show how a new form of technology that
was continuously used, was able to create a warm closeness that
both users have a feeling of being part of each other's lives
- a feeling of everyday togetherness. This togetherness
is characterized with a visual embodied aesthetic presence of
the remote special someone. This is Kelly's visual embodied
aesthetic presence in her mum's kitchen, a representation of her
nightcap routine. Everyday togetherness is also
characterized by the knowledge of each other's rhythm of
presence, such as experiencing someone's regular nightcap
routine through the Kettle Mate glow, or knowing the morning
walks a loved one takes us express in this handwritten
message. Another characterization of everyday
togetherness is the shared moments of the mundane and the
extraordinary. For instance, sharing the big news of winning
$100 from a bingo game.
Everyday togetherness is also characterized by planned and
serendipitous coordination of activities. Such as this
happenstance invitation for a day out. Everyday togetherness
was made possible through the phenomenon that we call
collaborative habituation. Collaborative habituation is a
process through which two or more people develop new
practices in using a new devices together by responding to and
encouraging each other's use that eventually lead to new sets
of habits. Gradually, the exploratory technology use of
the initial stages of the trial transform into new sharing
practices that in turn cultivated their long distance
relationship to another level. We observe that collaborative
habituation was facilitated by this conditions. In the interest
of time, let's discuss one condition of collaborative
habituation - the calm communication that reblend
synchronous, a synchronous, and static informational
communication. The Messaging Kettle gives the option to
exchange written messages in real time when both parties are
in the kitchen, or simply respond to messages whenever
user feel like it. The phatic communication in the form of the
warm lava lamp like glow represents a loved one's tea
time. Plus paired with written notes that allow just enough
bandwidth of information to be exchanged on a whim, as compared
to an email or a phone call. This reblending proved to be
powerful combination for people who have different communication
medium preferences to be connected in a daily basis. The
results of the long term trial of the Messaging Kettle show
that everyday togetherness is possible with connected
augmented objects, personal Internet of Things devices use
in everyday routines. The Messaging Kettle project showed
how the lives of people at a distance can be intertwined in a
daily basis. The lesson for design is that artful
integration are needed of phatic and informational design, and
tangible and embodied interfaces that people can collaboratively
habituate into their lives in ways that suit them. We invite
you to read the paper for more details such as the in-depth
discussion of the concepts everyday togetherness and
collaborative habituation. Thank you for listening!