When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges

Susanne Bodker’s papers (“When Second Wave HCI meets Third Wave Challenges” & “Third-Wave HCI, 10 Years Later – Participation and Sharing”) focus on the application of second and third wave HCI theory with particular emphasis on how their motivations differ as they seemingly break away from each other.

Within the paper she states that although the second wave of HCI is supposedly centred around context, many of the projects carried out during this wave failed to adequately define this aspect to any degree of usefulness for the purposes of HCI; the second wave is more orientated towards peoples working environments and rationality.
The third wave of HCI is viewed as leaning more towards leisure, arts and the home environment with more focus on peoples emotional and cultural identity. Within the third wave, she describes how technology is now used as a novelty tool that is “dumped” in the environment but does not necessarily get monitored in any way which fails to add to our understanding of HCI. Third wave design uses artistic statements that are vague at best. This is due to the nature of the technology that has emerged within the third wave including “pervasive technologies, augmented reality, small and tangible interfaces”; participatory design is used to an extent however the design focus has shifted as the technology is seen as mundane and familiar – there is no follow up. There is a lack of understanding of how these new technologies are changing the nature of HCI.

Bodker’s solution outlines a need for the second and third waves to merge so that a balance can be struck to create a “true” third wave which is inclusive of work based environments and effective participatory design with the third wave’s approach to exploring the wider view of everyday life. The papers proved useful in providing a detailed account of how the third wave HCI theory has distanced itself from the second wave when it should really act as more of an extension of it.

The paper I chose to look at is here and it investigates how HCI can be tailored towards specific groups of people, i.e Teenagers.