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Women’s experiences of leisure

Implications for design

Indiana University, amartins{at}indiana.edu

Nancy Schwartz

Indiana University, nschwar{at}indiana.edu

Misha Walker Vaughan

Oracle Corporation, California, mvaughan{at}acm.org

To understand issues involved in designing entertainment technology for women, we conducted a preliminary study of the leisure practices of earlier adopting women. Fourteen women kept track of their leisure activities for one week and were interviewed about definitions of leisure, contexts of leisure activities, and the role of technology in their leisure. Four dimensions underlie the participants’ understandings and use of leisure: activities performed alone, versus with others; a primary versus secondary focus; integration versus segmentation; and stimulation versus recuperation. These women rarely used computer-based technologies for leisure. Findings suggest that women might make more use of computer-based technology for leisure if it was designed to fit into existing routines of leisure activity. We propose ways that these findings could inform the design and content of entertainment technologies for women.

Key Words: computer • design • entertainment • gender • information and communication technology • leisure • play • women

New Media & Society, Vol. 4, No. 1, 29-49 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/146144480200400103


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