Making Un-Use: When Humans Disengage with Technology

Title of the Paper

Making Un-Use: When Humans Disengage with Technology

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Design Research, particularly focusing on technology use and non-use behaviors
• Keywords: Technology non-use, making un-use, human-computer interaction, limited use, digital detox

Research Background and Problem

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Design research and HCI have traditionally emphasized the "use" of technology and the positive user experiences it brings, using this as a measure of design success. However, the phenomenon of users ceasing to use technology (i.e., non-use) is equally prevalent.
  • The transition and complexity between the binary classifications of "use" and "non-use" remain underexplored.
  • Does ceasing to use technology indicate a design flaw, or should it be considered as part of the design process?

• Significance:

  • With the rise of the digital detox trend, where people attempt to reduce technology's impact on daily life, this not only highlights people's dependency on technology but also underscores the need to study "non-use."
  • Understanding technology "non-use" can broaden the boundaries of design research and provide new perspectives and inspirations for design theory.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Building on Vardouli's concept of "making use," the authors propose a new perspective to explore technology non-use (technology un-use).
  • Existing research on technology non-use primarily focuses on empirical studies (e.g., social media uninstallation) or general impact exploration, lacking theoretical discussion on how non-use is "created."

Solution

• Proposed Method or Solution:

  • The authors introduce the concept of "making un-use," viewing non-use as an active, creative, and material practice.
  • By analyzing a series of examples, such as digital detox behaviors with mobile devices, the epistemological and design implications of non-use are explored.

• Innovative Aspects:

  • Reframes users as "makers of un-use," challenging the traditional design paradigm guided by designer intentions.
  • Introduces the perspective of "material negotiation," exploring how users actively modify technological settings or functionalities to achieve non-use, enriching HCI's understanding of user behaviors.
  • Highlights the positive role of technological "constraints," contrasting with the prevailing focus on expanding technological functionalities.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  • Review theoretical backgrounds related to non-use, including technology use, non-use, and transitional states in between.
  • Collect real-world practices of non-use (e.g., user DIY innovations and design artifacts).
  • Analyze non-use behaviors from multiple dimensions, including physical transformation, aesthetic transformation, interactive transformation, and intentional transformation.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:

  • Identified four types of transformative activities users engage in to create non-use: (1) Physical, such as removing a phone from one's sensory range; (2) Aesthetic, such as switching the phone screen to grayscale to reduce its appeal; (3) Interactive, such as enabling "Do Not Disturb" mode; (4) Intentional, such as redefining the device's purpose by limiting certain functionalities.
  • Found that non-use is not a unidirectional behavior (from use to non-use) but can involve switching back and forth between use and non-use.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:

  • Provides a novel analytical framework that expands the concept of technology non-use from a "making" perspective.
  • Reveals the potential creativity in "non-use" behaviors, which are currently lacking design support, by starting from users' actual practices.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Analyzed a range of examples, from user DIY practices to artistic designs, to illustrate the diversity of making un-use.
  • Cited multiple real-world cases (e.g., digital detox boxes, app-locking functionalities) and discussed their limitations and potential.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Current research methods cannot fully capture the immediacy and dynamism behind non-use behaviors; future studies should design new methods (e.g., ethnographic approaches based on "things").
  • Further exploration of the material practices of non-use is needed, along with developing design sensitivities to foster broader forms of technology non-use.