Pleasure is your birthright: digitally enabled designer sex toys as a case of third-wave HCI

ABSTRACT

In the past decade, HCI has become increasingly preoccupied with the deeply subjective qualities of interaction: experience, embodiment, pleasure, intimacy, and so on, an agenda sometimes grouped under the heading of "third-wave HCI"."Analytically understanding and designing for such qualities has been an ongoing challenge to the field, in part because its established theories and methodologies are comparatively weak at understanding and being responsive to human subjectivity. In this paper, we present a case study of a group of designers who have, in the past few years, revolutionized their domain - sex toys - by combining embodied pleasure, intimate experience, health and wellness, emerging technologies, high-quality design processes, and social activism. We consider the implications this case could have for researchers innovating on especially third-wave HCI design theories, methodologies, and processes.

References

1. Bardzell, J. Interaction Criticism and Aesthetics. Proc. of CHI'09: World Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM: New York. (2009).
2. Bardzell, S. Feminist HCI: Taking stock and outlining an agenda for design. Proc. of CHI'10. ACM: New York. (2010), 1301--1310.
3. Bardzell, J., Bardzell, S., Bertelsen, O., and Kannabiran, G. Erotic life in Human-Computer Interaction. Proc of NordiCHI'10, Reykjavík, Iceland. New York: ACM Press (2010).
4. Bardzell, J., Bardzell, S. Intimate interactions: Online representation and software of the self. Interactions. ACM: New York. (2008), 11--15.
5. Bardzell, S., & Odom, W. The experience of embodied space in virtual worlds: An ethnography of a Second Life community. Space and Culture 11, 3 (2008), 239--259.
6. Bardzell, S., & Bardzell, J. Docile avatars: Aesthetics, experience, and sexual interaction in Second Life. Proc. of British HCI 2007, (2007).
7. Bertelsen, O., and Petersen, M. Erotic life as a new frontier in HCI. Proc. of British HCI 2007. Lancaster, UK. (2007), 7--10.
8. Blythe, M. and Jones M. Human Computer (Sexual) Interactions. In Interactions 11, 5 (2004), 43--46.
9. Blythe, M., Overbeeke, K., Monk, A., and Wright, P. Funology: From usability to Enjoyment. Springer, 2003.
10. Bødker, S. When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges. Proc. of NordiCHI'06, ACM Press (2006).
11. Boehner, K., DePaula, R., Dourish, P., and Sengers, P. How emotion is made and measured. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 65, Elsevier Ltd (2007), 275--291.
12. Brewer, J., Kaye, J., Williams, A., and Wyche, S. Sexual interactions: Why we should talk about sex in HCI. Ext. Abstracts CHI 2006, ACM Press (2006).
13. Buxton, B. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007.
14. Cross, N. Designerly Ways of Knowing. Birkhäuser Architecture, 2007.
15. Dourish, P. Where the Action is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. MIT Press, 2006.
16. Fogtmann, M., Fritsch, J., Kortbek, K. Kinesthetic interaction: Revealing the bodily potential in interaction design. Proc. of OzHCI, 2008. ACM Press (2008), 89--96.
17. Gould, J., and Lewis, C. Designing for usability: Key principles and what designers think. Communications of the ACM 28, 3(1985), 300--311.
18. Grinter, B., Siek, K., and Grimes, A. Wellness informatics. Extended Abstracts, CHI'10 (2010).
19. Harrison, S. Tatar, D. and Sengers, P. The three paradigms of HCI. Ext. Abstracts CHI 2007, ACM Press (2007).
20. Hornecker, E., and Burr, J. Getting a grip on tangible interaction: A framework on physical space and social interaction. Proc. of CHI 2006. ACM Press (2006), 437--446.
21. Kaye, J. J. I Just Clicked To Say I Love You: Rich Evaluations of Minimal Communication. CHI '06 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, ACM Press (2006), 363--368.
22. Klemmer, S., Hartmann, B., Takayama, L. How bodies matter: Five themes for interaction design. Proc. of DIS 2006. ACM Press (2006), 140--149.
23. Law. E. Preface: Meaningful measures: Valid useful user experience measurement. In Proc. of the International Workshop on Meaningful Measures. (2008), 3--4.
24. Lawson, B. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. Elsevier Architectural Press, 1980.
25. Löwgren, J. and Stolterman, E. Thoughtful Interaction Design. MIT Press, 2004.
26. Maines, R. The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. Johns Hopkins UP: Baltimore & London, 1999.
27. McCarthy, J. and Wright, P. Technology as Experience. The MIT Press, 2004.
28. Naples, N. Feminism and Method: Ethnography, Discourse Analysis, and Activist Research. Routledge, 2003.
29. Ogden, C., Richards, I. A. The Meaning of Meaning. Mariner Books, New York, 1923.
30. Picard, P. Affective Computing. The MIT Press, 2000.
31. Pace, T., Bardzell, S., and Bardzell, J. The rogue in the lovely black dress: Intimacy in World of Warcraft. Proc. of CHI'10. ACM: New York (2010), 233--242.
32. Reinharz, S. Feminist Methods in Social Research. Oxford UP, 1992.
33. Schiphorst, T. soft(n): Toward a somaesthetics of touch. Extended Abstract of CHI'09. ACM: New York. (2009), 2427--2438.
34. Schiphorst, T. exhale. An art installation. 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2010. http://www.sfu.ca/~tschipho/exhale/index.html.
35. Schön, D. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action. Basic Books, 1984.
36. Silverberg, C. Putting a price on pleasure: An oral history of retail sexual business and public discourse on sexual pleasure, 2009, unpublished manuscript.
37. Waxman, J. The case for intelligent design. Adult Video News. Retrieved November 2009 from avn.com.
38. Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J., and Evenson, S. Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI. Proc. of CHI'07 ACM: New York. (2007), 493--502.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Life and medical sciences

    • Consumer health

    • Health informatics

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)