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Behaviours Reflected

This Akasaka coffee shop includes a row of accessible power sockets (running a long the edge of the window) primarily to support laptop use - though over the course of an hour a number of people charged their phones (yes people here sometimes carry petite phone chargers). Recharging mobile devices in coffee shops is nothing new - but to what extent does the explicit nature of the infrastructure lead to new behaviours? Like? Well, maybe plugging in a printer? Or setting up a server. Or, or...

In some ways customers that don't use the power socket are subsidising those that do - after all they pay a the same for a cup of coffee. Or do power using power-users spend more money either on more items or on items that will last longer? What if the electricity socket was a stand-alone working micro market? As you plug into the socket your devices authenticates itself to the system, negotiates how much power (or fuel-cell fuel) it needs and charges away. As with the explicit presence of the socket to what extent does the explicit presence of a micro-market for power this extend existing behaviours? And given the relaxed ambiance that this coffee shop is trying to create is it desirable to create a market in this context?

Now read the above paragraph replacing the word power socket with bathroom or, or...

Thoughts for today: the extent that transparency of action changes how things are consumed, which in turn speeds up or slows down the consumption process. Like? Sitting in a cafe with a regular ceramic cup versus a take-out paper cup with lid.

This harks back to a piece of research conducted with colleagues Jan Blom, Rosalinde Belzer and Intel's Wendy March, Ken Anderson and Dawn Nafus amongst others, where we considered how public use of technologies such as say laptops or mobile phones change if everyone knows exactly what you're doing. That guy in the corner with the laptop: is he IMing with a loved one? Surfing porn? Or perhaps a bit of both? Does it matter that he plans to leave in five minutes, or that he's going to sit there for hours? And how does transparency (of what aspects) of his use change his relationship with the cafe, the cafe owners, other patrons, you? And in turn how does this affect his patterns of use?

The psychology of the empty coffee cup, indeed.

Writing from Akasaka | March 24, 2008 | Permalink