Communal Computing’s Many Problems
In the first article of this series, we discussed communal computing devices and the problems they create–or, more precisely, the problems that arise because we don’t really understand what “communal” means. Communal devices are intended to be used by groups of people in homes and offices. Examples include popular home assistants and smart displays like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, and many others. If we don’t create these devices with communities of people in mind, we will continue to build the wrong ones.
Ever since the concept of a “user” was invented (which was probably later than you think), we’ve assumed that devices are “owned” by a single user. Someone buys the device and sets up the account; it’s their device, their account. When we’re building shared devices with a user model, that model quickly runs into limitations. What happens when you want your home assistant to play music for a dinner party, but your preferences have been skewed by your children’s listening habits? We, as users, have certain expectations for what a device should do. But we, as technologists, have typically ignored our own expectations when designing and building those devices.
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