The HomeCar Organiser: Designing for blurring home-car boundaries

Abstract

Ubiquitous computing is having an important impact on family life with a wide range of technologies supporting and creating the need for connected and smarter homes. In particular, mobile devices are allowing families to connect activities across spaces, which include the home and the car. This paper presents a new design concept - the HomeCar Organiser - which is a connected system that enables families to coordinate schedules, activities and artifacts between the home and activities placed in the car. The design of HomeCar Organiser was informed by an empirical ethnographic study of family car travel practices in the UK over one and a half years. The study motivated us to consider how routine practices of everyday life are negotiated through and in the car while supported by a range of technologies.