Summer School 2006
After Ivrea, Roma, Split and Timisoara the 5th Convivio Summer School came to Edinburgh, August 14th-25th.
The theme this year was: "Technology, Enjoying or Enduring it? Visions, Boundaries and Transformations in Extending or Replacing Human Capacities."
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Archive for September, 2006
28-09-2006 by
Ambient Signifiers.
Inspired by the Tokyo Rail system, in “Ambient Signifiers (How I Learned to Stop Getting Lost and Love Tokyo Rail)” Ross Howard talks about the use of subtle signals to help people navigate complex information spaces:
“While traveling the Tokyo rail lines, I quickly realized that apart from the obvious use of real-time electronic signage, colored trains, and audio announcements, there were also other techniques being used to assist travelers in knowing where they were, and where they were going.
These techniques were subtler, and bordered on subliminal.
Simple chime melodies sounded on each platform as the train was waiting for passengers to get on and off … these melodies were different for each station.
After long-term use of the same route, commuters build up a unique chain of melodies that accompany them on their way home.
Without necessarily realizing why, they begin to establish a familiarity with these sounds, and can quickly discover when they have overshot their destination by hearing an unfamiliar melody that indicates a strange place.
I call these cues ‘ambient signifiers’: design elements that communicate subtly as part of the environment’s ambiance.
Current web designs tend to communicate using overt signifiers such as icons and text (and) these small, high-frequency elements require active seeking on the user’s part.
Ambient signifiers, on the other hand, are more constant and low-frequency in nature, working on a more passive and subconscious level without any effort from the user.
Because of their low frequency, they can communicate effectively irrespective of the competing high frequency ’sensory noise’ present in today’s rich and complex web interfaces.
Users don’t have to look anywhere: ambient signifiers are felt everywhere.“
Posted in Interaction Design, Ubiquitous Computing, User Interface Design | No Comments »
26-09-2006 by
Tangible user interfaces: misconceptions and insights.
Nicolas Nova has just posted “Tangible user interfaces: misconceptions and insights.” (PDF, 6.2 MB), an interesting introduction to problems currently being faced by interaction designers in this area.
“Misconception 1: inert objects do not lead to tangible interactions.
Misconception 2:
Direct mapping is simple and intuitive.
Misconception 3:
Physical interfaces offer a larger variety of control than standard controllers, and are more realistic and intuitive.
Misconception 4:
People want ambient information and ambient is just ambient.
Misconception 5:
The starting point of designing TUI is to look at real-life counterparts.
Misconception 6:
Tangible interfaces are ubiquitous and allow mobile/seamless interactions.
Misconception 7:
Tangible interactions = gestural interactions with small devices.
Misconception 8:
Tangible interactions rely on a ‘one shot’ model and objects are stable.
Misconception 9:
Tangible interaction is about interaction and not cognition; interaction is direct.
Misconception 10:
Tangible interaction are a matter of human beings and the environment.“
Posted in Interaction Design, Ubiquitous Computing, User Interface Design | No Comments »
25-09-2006 by
IDEA 2006. Information: Design, Experience, Access.
IDEA 2006, a new conference organized by Adaptive Path’s Peter Merholz, will be held in Seattle, USA, on October 23-24, 2006.
“IDEA 2006 brings together a diverse set of designers, creators, and researchers addressing a fundamental challenge we’re facing today: how to let everyday people take true advantage of the overwhelming mass of information that floods their lives.
Throughout their days, people are engaging with complex information to manage their lives … the appropriate presentation of information helps people make sense of the world around them.
There are currently many different kinds of folks working in this space, but they typically don’t talk with one another.
For this event, we’ve made an effort to invite presenters across a stunning array of disciplines - museum design, information visualization, librarians, environmental design, user research, engineering, interaction design, product strategy, and more.
The conference addresses issues of design for an always-on, always-connected world.
Where “cyberspace” is a meaningless term because the online and offline worlds cannot be made distinct.
Where physical spaces are so complex that detailed wayfinding is necessary to navigate them.
Where work processes have become so involved, and so digitized, that we need new processes to manage those processes.“
Posted in Interaction Design, Conferences | No Comments »
21-09-2006 by
Designing for Illiterate Users
Jan Chipchase’s “Designing for Illiterate Users” (6 MB, PPT), is a wonderful new study recently presented at UIAH in Helsinky:
“Don’t frame the question by ‘designing for illiterate people’, think about the skills that are necessary to use the core features on a device, something which we term device competency.
Consider the different types of literacy that users do have.
To what extent do risks & consequences affect device exploration?
Why iconic support and voice prompts can be part of a solution but are far from being the solution, instead look to a range of solutions on the device, on the network, and in user’s ecosytem. The eco-system can be anything from (task or device) literacy classes to posters on walls.
Last but certainly not least that it is better to solve the problem (illiteracy), than design work-around solutions for dealing with the problem (illiterate users stumped by text driven device interfaces).“
Posted in Interaction Design, User Research, Human Centered Design | No Comments »
18-09-2006 by
Situated Technologies Symposium
The Architecture and Situated Technologies symposium will be held in New York, on October 19-21, 2006.
“Since the late 1980s, computer scientists and engineers have been researching ways of embedding computational intelligence into the built environment.
This symposium, organized around the notion of an “encounter,” will attempt to articulate new research vectors, sites of practice, and working methods for the confluence of architecture and situated technologies. What opportunities and dilemmas does a world of networked objects and spaces pose for architecture, media art, and computing?
What post-optimal design strategies and tactics might we propose for an age of responsive environments, smart materials, embodied interaction, and participatory networks?
How might this evolving relation between people and “things” alter the way we occupy, navigate, and inhabit the built environment? What is the status of the material object in a world privileging networked relations between “things”?
What distinguishes the emerging urban sociality enabled by wireless communication technologies?
How do certain social uses of these technologies, including (non-) affective giving, destabilize rationalized “use-case scenarios” designed around the generic consumer?
How do distinctions between space and place change within these networked media ecologies?
Through a combination of workshops, presentations, and panel discussions, the symposium will attempt to stage a set of encounters between invited participants, an audience encouraged to participate, and the City of New York.“
Posted in Conferences, Ubiquitous Computing | No Comments »
17-09-2006 by
The Future of Human-Computer Interaction
In “The Future of Human-Computer Interaction” John Canny talks about a possible revolution around the corner when it comes to the practice of Human-Computer Interaction:
“User-centered design works well, we have good office information systems, HCI is a solid discipline.
So why write an article on the future of HCI, and more to the point, why should you read it?
The beef is that IT is not just about office work any more. It’s going everywhere (yes, you’ve heard that, but this time it really is).
Because of that, we’re due for another revolution (in fact, probably several) in HCI over the next few years.
Smart phones today are about as powerful as a midrange PC from eight years ago. Although only a tiny amount of smart-phone software is around now, it is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the industry.
Unfortunately, if you’ve tried interacting with a nontrivial smart-phone application, you’ll know what an ordeal it can be.
There has been a brave effort to evolve it from its WIMP interface roots, but it just feels wrong - like a shark in a shopping mall.
The story is similar for the other new markets for IT: medical, automotive, etc. In all cases, we’re adapting designs that were beautifully optimized for the office to a completely different environment.
If the past is any lesson, that isn’t going to work.
What will work in these new domains? The race is certainly not over, but there are some very good bets.“
Posted in Interaction Design, Human Centered Design, Ubiquitous Computing | No Comments »
01-09-2006 by
Second European Workshop on Design & Semantics of Form & Movement.
The Second European Workshop on Design & Semantics of Form & Movement will be held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on October 26-27, 2006, at Evoluon.
The scope of the conference is the design of products, systems and services with a focus on the meanings conveyed by the products and how they behave.
If design is making sense of things, as Krippendorff puts it, then design semantics is in the heart of the design discipline.
Moreover, if we accept that humans do not just respond to the physical properties of things but to their individual and cultural meanings as well, it becomes clear how huge a challenge it is to develop design semantics in a systematic and scientific way.
The first DeSForM conference demonstrated how useful, even exciting it was to meet and document the ongoing work related to this challenge.
During DeSForM some poles were put around this vast and mostly unexplored territory.
DeSForM 2006 aims at a further exploration and exploitation of the field.
The workshop will be in Eindhoven, the 2006 European Design Capital during the Dutch Design Week in which the city is sparkling with more than 90 design-related events, and it will be organised by TU/e and Philips Design.
The workshop will be held in the amazing Evoluon, the landmark of the city.
Activities:
Demonstrations
Keynote lectures
Long paper presentations
Short paper presentations
Evening dinner
Visit to 3TU Design United exhibition at TU/e
Co-chairs:
Prof. Steven Kyffin, Philips Design
Prof. Loe Feijs, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Dr. Bob Young, Northumbria University
Program committee:
Prof. Matthias Rauterberg, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Prof. Bill Gaver, Goldsmith London
Dr. Anne Guenand, Université de Technologie de Compiègne
Dr. Sara Ilstedt Hjelm, Interactive Institute and CID, KTH, Stockholm
Prof. Bernhard Bürdek, Academy of Art and Design Offenbach am Main
Prof. Susan Gold, Sierra Nevada College
Dr. Caroline Hummels, ID Studio Lab, Delft University of Technology
Prof. Kees Overbeeke, Carnegy Mellon University, Pittsburgh
Jodi Forlizzi, School of Design, CMU
Posted in Conferences, Human Centered Design | No Comments »