The digital music box: using cultural and critical theory to inform design

This work draws on studies which explore resistance to the music industry's construal of copying music files as theft. Following a previous ethnography on participants' "Technology Scruples" it considers the issue as a design challenge rather than a legal problem. Drawing on critical theory it considers how value might be added to digital music by embedding it in artifacts. Three product design students were briefed to create concept designs for "digital music boxes" that would contain and display particular back catalogues of music. The paper reflects on their sketches and models and argues that critical theory can inform new approaches to design work. Keywords Experience-centered Design, Concept Design, Cultural and Critical Theory ACM Classification Keywords H5. Information interfaces and presentation H 5.2 User Interfaces. Theory and Methods

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Mark Blythe
• Keywords: CHI 2007, Critical Theory, Critical Theory ACM, Digital Music Boxes, Human Computer Interaction