The Photostroller: Slideshow on wheels

The paper I selected to review this week was titled “The Photostroller – Supporting Diverse Care Home Residents in Engaging with the World” by Gaver et al. The reason for choosing this paper was due to its hands-on technical approach to developing and designing the Photostroller. The paper also bares some insight into my interests in pervasive displays and I was intrigued to read further into how the photos were configured for the display in a residents care home.

Gaver et al. outline the complex environment of the residential care home, paying specific attention to established social conventions, resident’s daily routines and activities. The Photostroller was the result of two years of engagement with the residential home which was used to build a solid relationship with staff, the residents as well as a platform for prototyping a range of technologies (some of which failed miserably and some had minor success). The results of the two year process enabled Gaver et al. to effectively establish a definitive idea of what technology would likely be more appealing to residents as well as what the technology would have to offer to them to ensure sustained use and maintained interest. Through their observations, Gaver et al. noted the integral role of the television unit within resident’s day to day routine as a means of passing time. They found a large number of residents opted to use the television but there were also a significant number of people who also desired conversation in a quieter environment such as the home’s “Quiet Room”. Through a number of informal workshops the group established that images depicting locations, buildings and people sparked nostalgic conversation amongst the residents; A design idea soon came into view. I strongly advocate the lengthy process of establishing requirements with the residential home however to a degree I felt that once the idea of using images had become apparent, no other media was explored; muted video clips may have been an alternative which could have been integrated into the Photostroller?

I believe that the Photostroller does allows residents to ‘engage with the world’ as titled within the paper. The device does allow residents to engage with it (i.e. select an image theme) as well encourage real world interaction however, only if there are people sitting around it as demonstrated by Arthur who ‘engaged’ with it to the extent of infrequent glances.  As a tool for inducing engagement, sociability and pleasure it excels only if used within certain contexts such as the ‘Quiet Room’ where socialising takes place naturally.  The device merely acts as a talking point, similarly to that of a television but without the disruption of adverts which could be a contributing factor to why it was so well received?