On a Typology of Situated Interaction

Typological design is not a rigid set of rules, but instead a body of phenomenal essences which play themselves out differently in each instance. (p.59)

One practical framework that McCullough offers to interaction designers who want to design for place is the idea of a typology of situated interaction. His proposal is that, like architectural type for the design of our built environment, we can develop a set of human interaction patterns and use them to generate designs closely linked to place. There is a clear influence from Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language (which McCullough references).

He acknowledges the difficulty architecture has had with typology, quoting Stewart Brand: “Part of the problem is that architects are taught to seek the anti-typological. Emblematically, ’The roof has a dramatic new look, and it leaks dramatically'” (p.59).

But McCullough sees type as a way to tap into the protocols, etiquettes, and activities that accumulate in a place. Leveraging a typology helps guide contextually appropriate interaction design.

He offers one such typology of situated interaction (p.120):

At Work

• Deliberating (places for thinking)
• Presenting (places for speaking to groups)
• Collaborating (places for reference resources)
• Officiating (places for institutions to serve their constituencies)
• Crafting (places for skilled practice)
• Associating (places where businesses form ecologies)
• Learning (places for experiments and explanations)
• Cultivating (places for stewardship)
• Watching (places for monitoring)

At Home

• Sheltering (places with comfortable climate)
• Recharging (places for maintaining the body)
• Idling (restful places for watching the world go by)
• Confining (places to be held in)
• Servicing (places with local support networks)
• Metering (places where services flow incrementally)

On The Town

• Eating, drinking, talking (places for socializing)
• Gathering (places to meet)
• Cruising (places for seeing and being seen)
• Belonging (places for insiders)
• Shopping (places for recreational retailing)
• Sporting (places for embodied play)
• Attending (places for cultural productions)
• Commemorating (places for ritual)

On The Road

• Gazing/touring (places to visit)
• Hoteling (places to be at home away from home)
• Adventuring (places for embodied challenge)
• Driving (car as place)
• Walking (places at human scale)