Designing for frustration and disputes in the family car

Chandrika Cycil, Mark Perry, Eric Laurier

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Families spend an increasing amount of time in the car carrying out a number of activities including driving to work, caring for children and co-ordinating drop-offs and pick ups. While families travelling in cars may face stress from difficult road conditions, they are also likely to be frustrated by coordinating a number of activities and resolving disputes within the confned space of car. A rising number of in-car infotainment and driver-assistance systems aim to help reduce the stress from outside the vehicle and improve the experience of driving but may fail to address sources of stress from within the car. From ethnographic studies of family car journeys, the authors examine the work of parents in managing multiple stresses while driving, along with the challenges of distractions from media use and disputes in the car. Keeping these family extracts as a focus for analysis, we draw out some design considerations that help build on the observations from our empirical work.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)46-60
Number of pages15
JournalInternational Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction
Volume6
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2014

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Car
  • Family life
  • Frustration
  • Interaction
  • Media practices
  • Video ethnography

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