Night and darkness: interaction after dark

Many of us work and socialize late into the night, some increasingly so. However, most information technology is still designed in the daytime and largely to be used in the light. Little thought is given to its behavior in darkness, even if the technology itself can sense darkness, or sleep. The aim of the workshop outlined below is to examine night and darkness as a starting point for designing ubiquitous computing. We aim to explore if and how the behavior of our technology should change as night falls. The workshop will use the topics of darkness, safety, 'nighttime people' and nighttime activities to think about new design opportunities for interaction design and ubiquitous computing. Practicing what we preach, so to speak, the workshop participants will also critique their ideas and designs in the dark, in Florence.