Recently, Bell [2] used the term ecology even more
broadly, to include all the aspects of a specific experience
in context. According to Bell, researching an ecology helps
to “convey an experience, a sense, a glimpse, or a window
into another world… a way of talking about deep cultural
patterns that implicate everything we do. Knowing these
stories, interests, and patterns makes it possible to design
and develop products and services that fit (intuitively) into
people’s lives.” [3]. Bell’s approach seems relevant for
product design, because it offers a mechanism for
examining multifaceted aspects of the environment,
including the products we interact with.
Nardi and O’Day [18] derived an ecological construct, an
information ecology, to describe an interrelated system of
people, practices, values, and technologies within a local
environment. An information ecology is a means to
understand how new technologies can be situated in an
environment ethically and responsibly, and to understand
how technology becomes a catalyst for change.
The concept of the product ecology evolved to describe the
dynamic and social relationships that people develop with
robotic products and systems. The product ecology
combines social ecology theory and an ecological approach
centered in the domain of design to create a framework
describing the relationship between a product and a group
of people that develop a relationship through using it. The
product ecology is an interrelated system of a product,
surrounded by other products, often acting as a system;
people, along with their attitudes, dispositions, norms,
relationships and values; products; activities; place,
including the built environment and the routines and social
norms that unfold there; and social and cultural context of
use (Figure 2). Important dimensions of a product include
function, aesthetics, and symbolic, emotional, and social
responses.
The product ecology describes the social experience of use
of a product, as well as how mutual adaptation occurs