2003a) “Supporting communication within domestic settings

Abstract. Current research has identified social communication as a primary area of technological development in the networked home of the future. The primary research focus is on supporting ‘phatic ’ communication – i.e., on supporting communication that is mediated by words, whether spoken or written and co-located or distributed. We provide an ethnographic study of mail use in the home to show that phatic communication is itself mediated through the social construction of visual displays that support the at-a-glance coordination of practical action and the management of domestic affairs. These ‘coordinate displays ’ are distributed around the geography or ecology of the domestic space. Their explication opens up new possibilities for the development of communication technologies for domestic employment, particularly the design of networks of ecologically situated and mobile displays that support the visible and timely flow of information around the home