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ResponTable

Design question:

How can the design of shared objects promote a sense of psychological ownership?

Introduction

Access-based Consumption (ABC) allows temporary access to goods rather than ownership. While ABC can support efficient usage of resources, it faces criticism for a lack of Psychological Ownership (PO, what people feel a sense of ownership over but do not necessarily legally own), which can impact users’ ability to achieve their goals using the goods. This work investigates how design can integrate PO into shared objects; this study uses a Research-through-Design (RtD) approach, using university hot desks as the context. Based on an initial evaluation of ResponTable, a hot desk that adapts its surface to user preferences, I developed seven design suggestions to increase PO in shared contexts. These principles, along with the desk design concept, serve as a provocation to inspire future research and design to promote PO more broadly within ABC. The design process and initial test result has been published in an academic paper at the DIS conference, which can be accessed through the button below.

design process.jpg

Project Highlights

Design suggestions

Based on an initial evaluation of ResponTable, a hot desk that adapts its surface to user preferences, I developed seven design suggestions to increase Psychological Ownership in shared contexts

  1. Configuration Control (Cc): the ability to control object settings.

  2. Temporal Control (Tc): the ability to access the desired object at a desired time.

  3. Preference Recall (Pr): the ability to remember and recall the user’s configuration preferences

  4. Territory Protection (Tp): an object's ability to be available and responsive only to an assigned user, rather than all possible users.

  5. De-configuration (Dc): the ability to reverse the user’s configuration of the object and change it back to its default state.

  6. De-contamination Reminder (Dcr): the ability to remind users to remove their belongings.

  7. Force Rejection (Fj): the ability to forcefully reject a current user, which works as a ‘harder’ solution to make sure the desk is ready for the next user.

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