The living room: Tangible Explorations of the Symbiosis in the home
Air pollution, in the form of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), affects both climate change and general public health negatively. It is estimated that air pollution causes around 7 million premature deaths per year, and is the biggest factor that negatively impacts public health globally. Exposure to PM2.5 particles over a longer period of time heightens the risk for lung and heart diseases, including lung cancer. PM2.5 is often considered in outside air pollution concerns, but is also present inside homes, in the form of dust or mold etc. or created by activities such as cooking, burning candles or smoking, or it enters from the outside through doors, windows or leaks in buildings. In recent years new designs of air quality monitoring sensors have been put on the market, such as AirBird from 2020 and Birdie whose kickstarter launched in 2022, and IKEA’s newer product VINDRIKTNING, which present sensor data about air quality in the home in alternative, non-numerical, screenless ways. However there is a lack in research on how the shape and communcation style of such designs impact how users interpret, reflect on, and adopt the design.