tansleyshakeshaft seeks to understand human experience with embedded computing and draws on a range of disciplines to promote the rich and poetic as well as the usable interface. Our strengths lie in ethnographically informed methodologies and qualitative enquiry.

craft ::    We think it is important to make things, to get hands on with the materials of technology. We frequently embed electronics in otherwise traditional techniques and materials such as textiles, and bring the exacting criteria of the contemporary artist craftsman to the design process. Having tangible objects on hand allows users to work through embodied and social scenarios with novel interaction concepts. Contemporary craft requires commitment on the part of the designer as well as the user.

actor networks ::    Much of our work deals with networked technology and as such, we understand the object to exist not on its own, but in relationship to other objects and people. We like Actor Network Theory because it gives us a framework within which we can observe experience unfolding. For the most part we reject the one user one computer model of interaction in favour of social complexity, believing this brings us closer to real life.

observation ::    We use a wide range of observation techniques at different stages of the design process. These include cultural probes and collage activities, social distance questionnaires and social network analysis, and self monitoring questionnaires. Where implemented systems are being tested, we design site specific games based on basic social behaviours and capture interactions in real time, on video and in post activity interviews.

analysis ::    The appropriate analysis tool will depend particularly on the time constraints of the project. We are as happy using resource heavy techniques such as Grounded Theory and Conversation Analysis to give a thick account of user experience, as producing a quick and dirty visual ethnography of a design space. Lifeworld analysis may be used to get closer to a particular social network and its development of shared or contested attitudes to a product. We also develop our own analysis tools, drawing on pedagogy to plot affective reactions and premises of use against perceived lifeworld spaces (as participants are as likely to imagine someone else’s experience as their own).

please see publications for more details

chapter four of the thesis deals with mapping the lifeworld of a friendship group

chapter six details the observation and analysis of the Friendship Jewellery in action

Friendship Jewellery :: 2005

Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

social approach game with networked pendants