Exploring ‘Generation Y’ interaction qualities at home and at work

Information technology support of office work has increased rapidly in functionality, but new ways of interacting have evolved more slowly. This paper adds to the design research community’s notion of interaction quality by exploring these new ways of interacting and comparing them in the home and work contexts. We describe and analyze two interview studies conducted with office workers to consider how they perceive, experience and compare interaction qualities. Six interaction qualities (instant, expressive, playful, collaborative, responsive and flexible) were identified that together embody an interaction style that we have labeled ‘Generation Y.’ From learning and comparing these qualities, we found that personal and natural type of interactions were mostly experienced in the more private home context. Formal and subtle type of interactions were mostly experienced in the more public work context. We also found that the office workers scored the interaction qualities in their home context as richer than in their work context. This study resulted in a set of design guidelines, aiming to be used to implement the Generation Y interaction style in future office tools and applications. Designers and researchers will benefit from the result of this study from understanding rich interaction design in the work context.