WaterCalls: an ambient call queue for cooperation between emergency service centres

This paper presents some design-oriented reflections about a design idea—WaterCalls. This design concept is informed by findings from an ethnographic study of emergency service work. Two main components constitute WaterCalls—an ambient display consisting of bowls with water and a call queue in a graphical interface. The purpose is to support cooperation between several operators who work at different emergency service centres. One benefit of ambient displays in the emergency service centre is that information that is currently not available in the setting may be displayed in an unobtrusive way. In this paper, we suggest that it is important to consider how the ambient displays come into real use and how they fit into the work people actually do, namely, their work practices. For the development of interfaces like this, it is crucial to take into consideration how they are used in combination with more traditional graphical interfaces and other artefacts.