Abstract
This thesis aligns with the field of designing and developing pervasive self-monitoring technology to encourage and support people undergoing physical rehabilitation comply with prescribed therapy at home. The works in this field are driven by an aim of integrating the technology as part of the ‘context’ where compliance happens. However, field-based works within the field highlight how compliance is shaped by the particularities of the setting of a home. These works call for considering the way rehabilitees comply with their therapy in the design of pervasive self-monitoring technology.
In response to this call, I take an embodied interaction perspective in the design of pervasive self-monitoring technology. Taking the embodied interaction perspective means considering the context as being emergent and constantly shaped by the rehabilitee’s actions of compliance; it is a context for compliance. I formulate the theoretical concept of ‘embodied-self-monitoring’ to orient the design towards embracing the embodied actions of the rehabilitees through which they make sense of complying with the therapy. The central argument of this thesis is that the theoretical concept of embodied-self-monitoring offers an a priori orientation to embrace the way rehabilitees engage with the particularities of a setting in order to comply with the therapy. I demonstrate the prospects of embodied-self-monitoring through engaging in two sets of design explorations—MagicMirror and ReHandles—set in Denmark and India.
I follow a concept-driven interaction design research process. This is a dialectic process where both the understanding of what is embodied-self-monitoring and what prospects it offers co-evolved through the two groups of design explorations presented in this thesis. A process of sketching -in -hardware drove this co-evolution in collaboration with the rehabilitees, their spouses, and their professional therapists.
The explorations resulted in a ‘compositional whole’. This compositional whole is
constituted by the theoretical concept of embodied-self-monitoring; the various scenarios of possible ways of interacting and engaging with pervasive self-monitoring technology that were envisioned, experienced and enacted through the range of design sketches; and the design situations. The compositional whole primarily contributes to the field of designing pervasive self-monitoring technology at the conceptual and empirical levels. At a conceptual level, it firstly calls for a shift in understanding a context for compliance as being emergent. Secondly, it calls for considering self-monitoring as embodied actions to
be designed for, through forming a design stance of embracing the ways of rehabilitee compliance. At an empirical level, the compositional whole offers three inspirational-subpatterns for the design practitioners to embrace the ways of rehabilitee compliance.
In response to this call, I take an embodied interaction perspective in the design of pervasive self-monitoring technology. Taking the embodied interaction perspective means considering the context as being emergent and constantly shaped by the rehabilitee’s actions of compliance; it is a context for compliance. I formulate the theoretical concept of ‘embodied-self-monitoring’ to orient the design towards embracing the embodied actions of the rehabilitees through which they make sense of complying with the therapy. The central argument of this thesis is that the theoretical concept of embodied-self-monitoring offers an a priori orientation to embrace the way rehabilitees engage with the particularities of a setting in order to comply with the therapy. I demonstrate the prospects of embodied-self-monitoring through engaging in two sets of design explorations—MagicMirror and ReHandles—set in Denmark and India.
I follow a concept-driven interaction design research process. This is a dialectic process where both the understanding of what is embodied-self-monitoring and what prospects it offers co-evolved through the two groups of design explorations presented in this thesis. A process of sketching -in -hardware drove this co-evolution in collaboration with the rehabilitees, their spouses, and their professional therapists.
The explorations resulted in a ‘compositional whole’. This compositional whole is
constituted by the theoretical concept of embodied-self-monitoring; the various scenarios of possible ways of interacting and engaging with pervasive self-monitoring technology that were envisioned, experienced and enacted through the range of design sketches; and the design situations. The compositional whole primarily contributes to the field of designing pervasive self-monitoring technology at the conceptual and empirical levels. At a conceptual level, it firstly calls for a shift in understanding a context for compliance as being emergent. Secondly, it calls for considering self-monitoring as embodied actions to
be designed for, through forming a design stance of embracing the ways of rehabilitee compliance. At an empirical level, the compositional whole offers three inspirational-subpatterns for the design practitioners to embrace the ways of rehabilitee compliance.
| Original language | English |
|---|
| Publisher | IT-Universitetet i København |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 150 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |