Article

Making space for stories: ambiguity in the design of personal communication systems

Authors:

Allison WoodruffAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 181 - 190

https://doi.org/10.1145/1054972.1054998

Published: 02 April 2005 Publication History

Abstract

Pervasive personal communication technologies offer the potential for important social benefits for individual users, but also the potential for significant social difficulties and costs. In research on face-to-face social interaction, ambiguity is often identified as an important resource for resolving social difficulties. In this paper, we discuss two design cases of personal communication systems, one based on fieldwork of a commercial system and another based on an unrealized design concept. The cases illustrate how user behavior concerning a particular social difficulty, unexplained unresponsiveness, can be influenced by technological issues that result in interactional ambiguity. The cases also highlight the need to balance the utility of ambiguity against the utility of usability and communicative clarity.

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Cited By

Liu LVan Essen HEggen B(2024)Let Information Flow Into Awareness: A Design Space for Human-Like Experiences to Promote Informal Communication for Hybrid WorkProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661549(1666-1680)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661549
Sivertsen CSalimbeni GLøvlie ABenford SZhu J(2024)Machine Learning Processes As Sources of Ambiguity: Insights from AI ArtProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642855(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642855
Huang SHekkert PSchifferstein HBordegoni M(2024)Inviting Sustainable Behavior Through the Power of Metaphors in DesignFor Nature/With Nature: New Sustainable Design Scenarios10.1007/978-3-031-53122-4_7(87-103)Online publication date: 4-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53122-4_7
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Index Terms

Making space for stories: ambiguity in the design of personal communication systems
1. Information systems
  1. World Wide Web
    1. Web applications
      1. Internet communications tools

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2005

928 pages

ISBN:1581139985

DOI:10.1145/1054972

Conference Chairs:
Wendy Kellogg
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
,
Shumin Zhai
IBM Almaden Research Center
,
General Chair:
Gerrit van der Veer
Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands
,
Program Chair:
Carolyn Gale
Stanford University, USA

Copyright © 2005 ACM.

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Published: 02 April 2005

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April 2 - 7, 2005

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CHI '05 Paper Acceptance Rate 93 of 372 submissions, 25%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661549
Sivertsen CSalimbeni GLøvlie ABenford SZhu J(2024)Machine Learning Processes As Sources of Ambiguity: Insights from AI ArtProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642855(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642855
Huang SHekkert PSchifferstein HBordegoni M(2024)Inviting Sustainable Behavior Through the Power of Metaphors in DesignFor Nature/With Nature: New Sustainable Design Scenarios10.1007/978-3-031-53122-4_7(87-103)Online publication date: 4-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53122-4_7
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