Sacred Imagery in Techno-Spiritual Design

Susan P. WycheKelly E. CaineBenjamin K. DavisonShwetak N. Patel*Michael ArteagaRebecce E. Grinter

*Presently at the University of Washington

ICTs are widely used to support religious practices. However, little is known about how to appropriately

design applications that support “techno-spiritual practices” (Bell, 2006).

Islamic Prayer: Salat

•Prayers are performed 5 times a day.

•Times are based on the worshippers geographic location and the sun’s position in the sky.

•Muslims told us they used paper prayer charts to prompt them to prayers.

Raka’ahs

Paper Prayer Charts

Nature

Nature

Nature

Mosques

Mosques

Evaluating Sun Dial

•Real world deployment

•10 Muslims (6 men and 4 women; all Sunni)

•We interviewed participants prior to the deployment.

•During our weeklong evaluation, participants had 35 potential engagements with the system.

•At the end of the week, we conducted semi-structured interviews with participants.

Findings

Findings

The phone reminded me of how I should keep track of prayer times and follow the natural progression of the sun, which I don’t do, I let mechanical devices [referring to his watch and computer] do it… – 38 year old male

Findings

…a lot of people in the U.S., we wish we could be in the Middle East or in a country that had more of this [referring to mosque], especially for me, since I became Muslim in theU.S., I have never lived in the Middle East. –24 year old male

Findings

This [Sun Dial] evokes that image of what a mosque should be…it is almost like a gentle reminder…it is like a small sign,I have Islamic art at home, when I look at it I am less likely to swear or do something stupid in front of it. –24 year old male

Sun Dial provided more than functionality or a prompt to the prayer times; it also contributed to users’ religious experience.

Sacred Imagery and Techno-Spiritual Design

Acknowledgements/ Questions?

I am grateful to participants for sharing their stories and my collaborators: Kelly Caine, Ben Davison, Shwetak Patel, and

Michael Arteaga. This research was supported in part by a grant from the Intel Research Council. Thank you Beki Grinter,

anonymous reviewers, and Genevieve Bell.