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Presentation
The converged appliance: "I lLove it…but I hate it"
OzCHI Conference (2005)
  • John Murphy
  • Jesper Kjeldskov, University of Melbourne
  • Steve Howard, University of Melbourne
  • Graeme Shanks, Monash University
  • Elizabeth A Hartnell-Young, University of Melbourne
Abstract

The last decade has seen convergence marketed as one response to the challenge of users having to juggle an increasingly wide array of digital services, technologies and media. Key to this view is the assumption that by converging computer devices, and digital media, the value of technology for end users can be maximised whilst the overheads involved in purchasing, maintaining and orchestrating a variety of different technology solutions can be minimised. In contrast however, some authors have argued that convergence creates weak-general solutions, and rather we should be aiming for strong-specific technology by means of the deliberate design of multiple diverged devices. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of convergence and divergence. We discuss three apparently irreconcilable perspectives on the relationship between functionality and usability, and show that they are in fact complementary views of convergence. To ground this discussion we draw on the results of a recent cultural probes study of a cohort of early adopters of converged devices.

Keywords
  • Convergence,
  • Divergence,
  • Usability knee,
  • User study,
  • Cultural probes,
  • Digital technology,
  • Media
Publication Date
2005
Citation Information
John Murphy, Jesper Kjeldskov, Steve Howard, Graeme Shanks, et al.. "The converged appliance: "I lLove it…but I hate it"" OzCHI Conference (2005)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/elizabeth_hartnell-young/31/