Field work equipment

For the full interviews:

• digital voice recorder
• informed consent form
• interview schedule
• information sheet

For observation

• Field diary to record activities of research, impressions, procedures, location, office layout, interview experiences
• Camera to capture images of working environments. There's been little opportunity to use it though, due to restrictions on premises, or personal privacy issues, or I just haven't asked permission.

Mobilising emotion or emotional mobilising?

Kristina Höök talked today about human centered computing using digital products that attempt to set the scene for emotional experiences. It was all a bit creepy. She gave examples of something called

• eMoto - that's a phone - if you used this dildo-like pen with your mobile phone, it would send your message in colour depending on your mood, or what you wanted to express - I'd be grey so as not to give away mood to any one but family -
• Affective Diary - you get some electronic gadget that reads measurements from a wrist-strap and turns them into not-quite-human blobs, whose colour is supposed to mean something
  

Needless to say, most of the computing chaps appeared from their body language to be a bit sceptical and disdainful of such equipment.

I can't quite see the use of it - but if given feedback I guess you could control your sweat and temperature - like you can control your blood pressure if you get feedback. So may be that's useful for controlling your stress levels.