Coping with Cars and Co-presence at Petrol Stations

Office settings and public places are indeed very different places. Whereas the development of mobile technologies has been informed by insights regarding the office the same cannot be said about the knowledge regarding public places. Still, mobile technologies are frequently used in public places. In this paper we focus on the problem of engaging with technology while others are present, which is a persistent feature in technology use at public places. We study this feature by looking at petrol stations, were smooth flow of cars and customers explicitly highlights the problems of sharing a public space. We propose four design approaches towards non-obstructive mobile-ICT-use: One where those present agree on appropriate use, one where spatial arrangements guide mobile technology one where the use is restricted technically through design and finally an approach where designers support the ongoing negotiation of the place by providing awareness through the systems of the mobile technologies.