Towards a Better Understanding of Social Acceptability
This work addresses the problem of improving technology design for human-computer interaction researchers and practitioners by offering a more nuanced framework, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing theories without introducing a new paradigm.
The paper tackles the problem of understanding social acceptability in technology by critiquing existing models as too rigid or overlooking material aspects, and proposes an approach based on Social Practice Theory to conceptualize social context as interactions between co-located practices, with acceptability depending on their compatibilities.
Social contexts play an important role in understanding acceptance and use of technology. However, current approaches used in HCI to describe contextual influence do not capture it appropriately. On the one hand, the often used Technology Acceptance Model and related frameworks are too rigid to account for the nuanced variations of social situations. On the other hand, Goffman's dramaturgical model of social interactions emphasizes interpersonal relations but mostly overlooks the material (e.g., technology) that is central to HCI. As an alternative, we suggest an approach based on Social Practice Theory. We conceptualize social context as interactions between co-located social practices and acceptability as a matter of their (in)compatibilities. Finally, we outline how this approach provides designers with a better understanding of different types of social acceptability problems and helps finding appropriate solutions.