Exploring Information Appliances through Conceptual Design Proposals

The goal of this paper is to describe the Alternatives workbook both in terms of the proposals it made for future information appliances and as a method for pursuing design. First, almost half the paper is devoted to the presentation of reduced versions of the workbook pages, slightly modified to retain legibility, as a way of simulating their impact directly. Second, we discuss the ideas in terms of the cultural values they suggest for technologies meant to be integrated in everyday life. Finally, we describe the proposals as an example of research through design, describing how they were designed to balance concreteness, openness and multiplicity to allow the emergence of a design space that could be developed with our partners.