What Smartphones, Ethnomethodology, and Bystander Inaccessibility Can Teach Us About Better Design?

TL;DR

This paper explores how smartphones' design impacts social understanding and interaction in shared environments, emphasizing the need for future designs to address 'bystander inaccessibility' to improve social cohesion.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of 'bystander inaccessibility' in smartphone use and argues for design considerations that enhance social context awareness.

Findings

Smartphones offer minimal cues to bystanders about user activity.

Bystander inaccessibility hampers shared understanding in social situations.

Design should consider social context cues to improve collocated interactions.

Abstract

Smartphones, the ubiquitous mobile screens now normal parts of everyday social situations, have created a kind of ongoing natural experiment for social scientists. According to Garfinkel's ethnomethodology social action gets its meaning not only from its content but also through its context. Mobility, small screen size, and the habitual way of using smartphones ensure that, while offering the biggest variety of activities for the user, in comparison to other everyday items, smartphones offer the least cues to bystanders on what the user is actually doing and how long it might take. This 'bystander inaccessibility' handicaps shared understanding of the social context that the user and collocated others find themselves in. Added considerations and interactive effort in managing the situation is therefore required. Future design needs to relate to this basic building block of collocated interaction to not be met with discontent.