Urbanely nomadic residents are increasingly forgoing the randomness of locale-based relationships in favour of digitally mediated interactions occurring within the walled garden of their pre-existing social networks. This enhances a sense of community with members of established friendship groups, but what of the interactions with those outside of these networks, such as the inhabitants of residential spaces? The mass adoption of mobile phones and Internet based social networking applications has not, as critics feared, brought about ‘the death of the city’. Yet within HCI, the focus on meeting the needs of the digitally connected, but geographically dispersed user has eclipsed the design of technologies for centralized users. In order to address this gap we conducted a user study that informed a series of design implications for the collective enhancement of residential environments. A lens of suburban nostalgia was employed to see what types of neighbourhood interactions might be retrofitted in new ways through the use of technology to provide some social glue.

VENUE: University of Melbourne, IDEA LAB, level 4, 111 Barry Street, Carlton

DATE and TIME: Friday 05th September 2008, 3-4 pm

PRESENTER: Christine Satchell
Dr Christine Satchell is a Senior Research Fellow at Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Interaction Design Group at The University of Melbourne.

For more information visit
http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/research/groups/interactiondesign/seminars.html.