At home with the technology: an ethnographic study of a set-top-box trial

Reviewer: Brad A. Myers

There have been many trials of sophisticated set-top boxes designed to provide services through a television. These have generally been unsuccessful. This paper provides a wealth of ethnographic evidence, drawn from studies of families in the UK, to explain why this may be so. The researchers studied 11 families, which varied in their use of technology, the number of family members, age, marital status, and so on. One observation they made is that each family sets up standard routines, procedures, and allocations of space. Sometimes, these are defined in terms of the technology involved (for example, watching TV). The authors summarize: “interaction with technology is, in complex ways, a managed activity in domestic environments.” New technology should not disrupt the family dynamics, or it will not be accepted. For example, “living and action are distributed throughout the home,” but a set-top box concentrates many activities—banking, scheduling, playing computer games, and watching TV and movies—in one place. Another observation concerns the aesthetic impact of a set-top box on a person's living space: most people did not mind, but one thought it was too ugly. Another key concern of many users was the security and control issues—who would control the access to and content of the set-top box, and whether and how they could control the costs. The users did not understand how the boxes worked, and tended to envision worst-case scenarios. This paper does an excellent job of showing how ethnographic studies can contribute to the design and analysis of new systems, and provides interesting descriptions of how media technology works in homes today.