Generation Y Interactions : Making the Office Catch Up

The rapid development of information technology in the past decade has enabled the introduction of a number of new communication tools and platforms in everyday life, such as instant messaging, podcasting, blogging and social networking. These tools offer people new ways of interacting, enabling them to create, retrieve and broadcast large amounts of digital information, using a great variety of devices, techniques and media. As a result of this constant stream of information, people have become more socially active as well as become more capable and ready to integrate their virtual world with their physical world, using highly interactive devices, such as mobile phones, laptops and multi-touch tablets. So far, however, this kind of interactive behavior has mainly manifested itself in people’s private context, while in the more public work context the rich interactions that all these new technologies are offering do not seem to be supported to a great extent yet. Whereas office applications have increased sometimes dramatically in functionality, the ways of interacting with all these functionalities have evolved much more slowly. As a consequence, most office work is thus still done through the ubiquitous, almost 40-year old, set-up of keyboard, display and mouse, which only supports limited behaviors, such as keyboard tapping and mouse clicking. This lack of richness in interaction is becoming more evident, now that a new generation of workers is quickly entering the market. This so-called Generation Y, born in the 1980s and early 90s, are digital natives, who have experienced digital technology their entire lives. Thus they have developed new ways and habits of interacting with their (digital) world, putting very high demands on the applications, services, devices and networks that enable and support these interactions. An interesting challenge therefore presents itself to designers and researchers: How to bring the qualities of the interactions that people currently experience in the private context of their homes and friends into the more public context of their offices and colleagues? In this thesis this challenge is taken on through a number of studies, in which the following research questions were addressed: 1. What are Generation Y styles of interaction in home life and office work? 2. What are the interaction qualities that make up Generation Y styles of interaction? 3. How are these interaction qualities experienced within home and office context? 4. What are opportunities to design office tools or services that support Generation Y styles of interaction? 5. How are the interaction qualities of these new designs experienced? The research framework of this thesis distinguishes three major components: 1) people (Generation Y), 2) technology and 3) context (home vs. work). On the intersections of these three components are the interactions that are at the core of the research. From the beginning and throughout the whole research, prototypes that are rich in aesthetic, expressive and experiential quality were built and tested in real contexts. In the first phases of the project emphasis was in the exploration of new ways of interacting, while later on in the project the focus shifted to applying these new interactions within the office context. Chapter 2 addresses research questions 1 and 2 through literature review, as well as a qualitative study, aimed at exploring Generation Y styles of interaction, behaviors and interaction qualities. In a series of contextual interviews with office workers, we found that they put very high demands on the applications, services, devices, and networks that enable and support collaborative work. A set of examples of activities representative of what people currently do in their home and office context was gathered and grouped into a style of interaction, which we have labeled as ‘Generation Y’. This style of interaction seemed to be more prominent in the home situation than in the office context. Six interaction qualities (instant, expressive, playful, collaborative, responsive and flexible) were identified to make up the Generation Y style of interaction. The interviews strengthened the impression that these qualities were better represented in the home context, through activities such as gaming or chatting, than in the office context. Chapter 3 focuses on interactive technology design, designing and developing a number of experiential prototypes as a first exploration. It explores how to use interaction qualities to guide the design of Generation Y styles of interaction by combining functional, experience and technology approaches. In an educational setting a number of interactive prototypes were built by students in which specific interaction qualities were explored and demonstrated. From designing, building and testing these prototypes, we learned to use interaction qualities to explicitly guide and constrain the design process. Interaction qualities were found to be able to integrate all three design approaches, and thus can be introduced as a possible new principle into design research and education. Chapter 4 addresses research question 3. In follow-up interviews, we explored how office workers experienced and judged the interaction qualities in their home and the office situations in order to develop interaction design guidelines. The interviews and discussions showed that the six interaction qualities made sense to users and designers alike. Designers are more used to talk about interactions and qualities as abstract things, whereas other people will refer to their direct experiences. The six interaction qualities, together with their corresponding guidelines were subsequently used by the author and by design students, to design new types of interactions in the work context. Chapter 5 deals with research question 4 by implementing the interaction qualities into a new design, which uses the knowledge and experience gained from the previous chapters and integrates them into a working prototype. An office phone was chosen as the product to bring the Generation Y interaction qualities into an office context. The YPhone prototype was developed to demonstrate the interaction qualities with new ways of working, e.g., pushing down hard on a contact to send an urgent mood while calling. YPhone prototype is being developed using Max/MSP, Phidgets sensors and Arduino. A pair of prototypes was built to demonstrate and to evaluate the Generation Y interaction style in office work. Chapter 6 focuses on synthesis again to answer research question 5. This chapter presents findings on the prototype’s performance on the interaction qualities in a lab setup and in a real office work context. The YPhone prototype was demonstrated, evaluated and discussed at a series of venues, with respondents trying out scenarios such as placing an urgent call, or relaying an incoming message. The prototype worked in demonstrating the intended Generation Y interaction qualities. Moreover, the evaluation results indicated that the interactions would fit into work contexts and enrich people’s work situations. These findings indicate that the interaction qualities can give guidance in designing Generation Y type of interactions. Chapter 7 starts by reflecting on the answers on the five research questions. This is followed by a general discussion of the research: what has been learned and what are the possible impact of its results. The aim of this research was to contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the domains of interaction design and design research. By taking interaction qualities as a driver in the design and research process, the intention was to bring Generation Y interaction qualities from the home context to the work context. We believe and hope that interaction qualities can serve as a tool to guide the design process, and that the six interaction qualities will become a valuable instrument to guide designers in developing new office tools and applications that are rich and engaging in interaction.