Augmenting Fridge Magnets

In this paper, we describe a number of augmented fridge magnet concepts that support (i) organization and planning in households; (ii) reminding; and (iii) methods household members use to assign ownership to particular tasks, activities and artifacts. These concepts are shown to be derived from field investigations into everyday fridge use in home settings and specifically the interactional properties exhibited by magnets and fridge surfaces. The underlying motivation to this work is to demonstrate that the ubiquity of technology in the home may be discouraged by the wholesale proliferation of complex, multifaceted, multi-functioning devices and services. Instead, a less is more design philosophy is promoted where the success of a solution is seen to hinge on the degree to which its interactional properties can be made intelligible and to-hand in ordinary household routines.