Current methodologies

Contemporary jewellery spans the context of fine art practice (Astfalck 2005), design practice and craft practice (Dormer 1997). Thus, the design of digital jewellery inevitably encompasses aspects of art, craft, design, and human-computer interaction (HCI). The origins of HCI are rooted in psychology, and the predominance of systems, modes of interaction, and the notion of the task, illustrates the narrow cognitive perspective of HCI on the relationship between humans and computer-based systems.

"...the joint performance of tasks by humans and machines; the structure of communication between human and machine; human capabilities to use machines; algorithms and programming of the interface itself; engineering concerns that arise in designing and building interfaces; the process of specification, design, and implementation of interfaces; and design trade-offs." (Hewett, 2003)

With its focus on the evaluation and analysis of existing modes of interaction between humans and computers, HCI does offer a wealth of theoretical perspectives. Such methods have little relevance to the design and conception of emotionally rich digital interaction, or personal significance of artefacts. However, alternative and sympathetic treatments of emotion and experience are becoming increasingly popular within HCI. McCarthy and Wright (2004), propose theoretical and methodological perspectives regarding our experiences of technology. McCarthy and Wright observe that in HCI there has been an emphasis on the functional aspects of computer use, with a focus on issues of usability, to the detriment of other aspects of experience. The characteristics of usability, detailed by Shackel (1990), of an effective, flexible, learnable and satisfying to use computer system, no longer offer an adequate benchmark for our scope of interaction with digital technologies (McCarthy & Wright, 2004). In acknowledging that beyond usability, perspectives in HCI have engaged with our everyday experiences of digital technologies, they argue that there is still a neglect of the emotional qualities of our experiences and call for an attention to the felt life of our experiences with technologies and for new approaches in HCI embracing these aspects.

From a mainstream HCI perspective, the design of interactive systems starts with the elicitation of “user needs” (Preece et al., 2002) and through various methods aims to design

a solution to satisfy these. The premise here is that needs exist, and such an approach is born from the historical context of the design of computer systems to aid in the completion of tasks (whether at work or in the home). By contrast, the Interaction Design community have utilised innovative, creative approaches to the conception and design of digital environments, which share methods with art and design (Dunne, 1999; Dunne & Raby, 2001; Gaver, 1999; Anderson et al., 2003). Such projects have not, to date, considered digital jewellery, but do offer methods, which share creative dynamics and perspectives with art and design methods offering more open-ended, exploratory approaches to the

“...a culture of relentless innovation for its own sake, based simply on what is technologically possible and semiologically consumable, to a broader context of critical thinking on its aesthetic role in everyday life.” (Dunne & Raby, 2004)

Dunne’s work also involved the development of probe methods (Gaver et al., 1999, Gaver et al., 2001), which use creative processes inspired by the work of conceptual art groups including the Situationists, Dadaists and Surrealists to discover inspirational information about the participants involved in their research. The process involves presenting the participants with packs of creative, evocative tasks and questions “designed to provoke inspirational responses” (Gaver et al., 1999, pp. 21). Many of the probe activities were structured towards areas of information desirable to the researchers within the confines of the project, but others were left ambiguous, leaving open the space of possible responses.

Both participants and process were regarded as playful and the approach was described as designing for pleasure. Gaver et al. (2004) state that a focus on pleasure requires a different approach to a focus on utility, suggesting that utility driven designs can be designed from outside the situation “standing back to assess difficulties and seek solutions.” (Gaver et al., 2004: 53). Designing for pleasure requires a more involved perspective, immersed in the situation.

Gaver et al. (2004) acknowledge that their probe methods have been adopted widely throughout industrial and academic design and research groups, but observe that not all employment of these methods have been done in the spirit intended, stating that many have rationalized the probes as a consequence of being unsatisfied with the playful and subjective nature of the approach, using them to “produce comprehensible results…[and]

even use them to produce requirements analysis” (Gaver et al., 2004: 53). They go on to state that such misappropriations have missed the point of the probes, which by their very nature value uncertainty, ambiguity, play, subjective interpretation and exploration.

A shift in the traditional focus of industrial design on functionality and usability, to design and emotion has been evident in recent years. Deborah Lupton (1998) describes the full breadth of the spectrum of approaches to emotion. At one pole emotion is considered a set of physiological correlates, heart rate, blood pressure and skin resistance. At the other pole resides a social constructivist perspective of emotion, in which emotion is considered as a process that people do through social interaction, something that is highly social and discursive.

Design approaches have emphasised how products may be designed to elicit certain kinds of emotional response (Govers & Mugge 2004, Govers 2004, Govers et al 2003, Desmet 2000), and the measurement of emotions to this end (Desmet 2003, Desmet et al. 2000).

Desmet focuses on images, appearances, and the visual stimulus of an object, and underplays the linguistic, discursive aspect of our experiences and interactions. This conception of emotion is unapologetically consumption oriented:

“…designers are seeking ways for their products to elicit emotional and behavioural cues…for the pragmatic reason that it increases product desirability.” (Bennett, 2003)

Pleasure and emotional significance are addressed as a component of a sales and marketing strategy. Akinori Nakanishi, general manager of Mitsubishi Motors, introduced the 2002 Design and Emotion conference, stating:

“… the corporation realised that no matter how refined the technological content of your car is, if it is not sexy, it will not sell!” (Nakanishi, 2002)

Bennett (2003) observed that such approaches seek to scientifically assess the emotional impact of a design by using what Eisermann, Director of Design and Innovation at the Design Council UK, describes as Sensorial Quality Assessment Method or Sequam (Eisermann, 2003) an approach based on behavioural science. Conversely there are also approaches to understanding the emotional meanings people attribute to objects through a more biographical context such as Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg Halton (1981) and similarly McCarthy & Wright (2004), who view emotion as social and discursive phenomena.