Repurposing: Techniques for reuse and integration of interactive systems

This paper explores technical appropriation and integration of information applications. We introduce an approach for recasting applications for use in emerging and unanticipated user settings; that is, settings that were not accounted for in the application's original design process. Based on our previous research into novel interfaces for supporting communication and collaboration, we identify six reuse and integration techniques we call repurposing and show how they may be used in a design extension of a standard email client that preserves its familiar operations