people and electricity

Last semester, I've given a series of lectures at ENSCI (a Paris-based design school) for design students about people's experience of electricity. Just had some time to trim the slides and edit then in english. It's a short version of the presentation I've made about people's representations of electricity as well as intriguing practices I collected during trips, research projects and home visits. This material was used to give students some insights about how human beings related to an abstract (and now mundane) phenomenon such as electricity. Slides under the link below:

Of course most of the presentation is a bit limited without the corresponding talk but it gives an idea of the messages I brought to the table. Moreover, the elements I presented here are only a subset of lots of other phenomena related to electricity that I missed or did not describe for time reasons. For the record, the students' project was about designing "internet of things" artifacts that would make people more conscious of electricity consumption.

Integration of the natural and computational worlds

Freshly updated signage in the woods above Sintra, Portugal. As if the green mousse has just been removed to paint these basic-but-elegant trekking signs.

These inspiring pictures echoes a lot with a research paper I recently read about how human computer interaction (HCI) had little explored everyday life and enriching experiences in rural, wilderness and other predominantly “natural” places. Entitled "Pursuing genius loci: interaction design and natural places, the paper by Nicola Bidwell and David Browning addresses the integration of the natural and computational worlds.

The pictures above are more precisely connected with one of the principles the authors discussed, there is the idea that "design must simultaneously fade into the background and provoke seeing natural places differently". This is IMO the role of this simple signage painted on rocks: not invasive, easy to understand and just in place. Which of course, leads to the debate of using technological means to support this.

Prevalent indoor environment in computer games

"most virtual environments still rely on the cinematic idea that the virtual space extends off-screen even though it can neither be seen or accessed. Hence the popularity of games settings such as labyrinths, prisons, caves and interior chambers of pyramids and the like. The spatial frameworks efficiently spatialize a virtual environment, endowing it with the implicit sense of being an extensive environment"

Read this morning in "The Virtual (Key Ideas)" (Rob Shields)

Why do I blog this? Although the situation has changed a lot since the 80-90s, I find this point intriguing in terms of interaction/game design history.

Speech idioms

Idioms going from the interwebs to the physical, seen on ads in Berlin last october.

Thought about it the other day when I overheard a goof on the streets screaming "lol" (in a french conversation), found it funny to think about the transfer of idioms.

Plus, I am always intrigued by speech bubbles on posters.

Bus GPS

The GPS navigation system in the bus that goes from Lisbon airport to the city center is an interesting device. Located in the front and at the middle of the bus, it allows customers to see where they are on a very basic map of the surroundings (a classical GPS map actually) along with a list of stops.

Of course, the most intriguing case occurs when the GPS signal is lost because 1) the street is too narrow (canyon effect), 2) the bus was under a piece of architecture that prevent the capture of GPS signal ("Lost satellite reception" as the error message says).

Why do I blog this? observing various use of location-based services when visiting new places. What is interesting here IMO:

• The shallow interface of this GPS display. The map itself is highly limited as shown by the crude representation of blocks. So far, the information printed there (apart from the list of bus stops) is mostly targeted at a driver (who would need to look for information about the street he/she has to take) and not at the passengers.
• For "users" there is the possibilities of a collective practice around the maps. There should be some intriguing field studies to be conducted around this artifact, especially to understand people discussions (tourists/locals, people knowledgeable/not with this technology).

This example draws the question of how to design a GPS-enabled navigation device for bus passengers that would offer a meaningful interface for different target groups (likely to be in this bus that goes to the airport). That said, I believe in the potential of such devices, there could be interesting services developed for single-users and groups

Generativity

For a project about the future of the interwebs that I recently completed, I read The Future of the Internet -- And How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain. Beyond the internet topic itself, I was struck by his thoughts regarding "generative technologies", i.e. systems that are flexible enough to create even more ideas, methods or processes. Or, according to the author, generativity on the internet is the ""capacity for unrelated and unaccredited audiences to build and distribute code and content through the Internet to its tens of millions of attached personal computers". Here's how Zittrain frames the evolution of generativity:

• "An idea originates in a backwater.
• It is ambitious but incomplete. It is partially implemented and released anyway, embracing the ethos of the procrastination principle [by which he means that most problems confronting a system such as the internet/OS/computers can be solved later by others if they express the need to do so].
• Contribution is welcome from all corners, resulting in an influx of usage.
• Success is achieved beyond any expectation, and a higher profile draws even more usage.
• Success is cut short: "There goes the neighborhood" as newer users are not conversant with the idea of experimentation and contribution, and other users are prepared to exploit the openness of the system to undesirable ends.
• There is movement toward enclosure to prevent the problems that arise from the system's very popularity."

His point is that there is a "paradox of generativity": an openness to unanticipated needs can lead to a bad or non-generated waters. In the context of his book, Zittrain describes how the Internet can be locked down if certain problems (security, viruses, malware or privacy intrusion) spreads. Therefore:

"The keys to maintaining a generative system are to ensure its internal security, and to find ways to enable enough enforcement against its undesirable uses without requiring a system of perfect enforcement"

Why do I blog this? I was less interested in the part about how security issues of the internet but found interesting this notion of generativity to have a macro-view of technological evolutions in society. It shows the important point that the situation is dynamic and that an innovation cannot be taken for granted as it is; evolution happens and its intrinsic characteristic (e.g. generativity) is not a given as it can lead to opposite consequences. Furthermore, as the project I had was about policies and regulations, it was fruitful to understand this notion.

Paper clip roles

"A paper clip can be used in all sorts of unintended ways: as a makeshift keyring, as a make-up ustensil, for cleaning fingernails or, bent into the right shape, as a small universal tool. Children link up several clips to make bracelet or necklaces. Older children transform the clips into ammunition which they fire off rubber bands which can also found in an office (...) And last but not least, the paper clip is used to calm nerves, comparable to the hand charms used in Oriental cultures. You can find them lying around, distorted and bent into little balls, after tiring business meetings or important telephone conversations"

"Die Galerie der kleinen Dinge: Kleines Kulturgeschichtliches ABC von A wie Aschenbecher bis Z wie Zündholz" by Heiner Boehncke, Klaus Bergmann, und F. W. Bernstein (1997)

Some surfaces are more attractive than others

Stickers and graffitis are now common on lots of urban surfaces. On this example found in Venice, Los Angeles, some surfaces are, interestingly, more attractive than others. Although the height of each sign is almost similar, the "stop" sign clearly receives more inscription than the street name plate. Is it because the red sign corresponds to an authoritative order (that should be regarded with mockery)? Or simply that the size of the sign is a better affordance?

Build your own burger

Personalized food composition seems to be pervasive lately, as exemplified by the "build your own burger" encountered in Palo Alto two weeks ago. Still looking forward a more participative steps in which the customer could be even more engaged.

From HCI to UX

Some excerpts from Human Computer Interaction (HCI) by John M. Carroll that I considered relevant for my research:

"To a considerable extent, HCI now aggregates a collection of semi-distinct fields of research and practice in human-centered informatics. (...) HCI has produced a dramatic example of how different epistemologies and paradigms can be reconciled and integrated. (...) There is no unified concept of an HCI professional. In the 1980s, people often contrasts the cognitive science side of HCI with the software tools and user interface side of HCI. The HCI landscape is far more differentiated and complex now. (...) One of the most significant achievements of HCI is its evolving model of the integration of science and practice. Initially this model was articulated as a reciprocal relation between cognitive science and cognitive engineering. Later, it ambitiously incorporated a diverse science foundation (...) Currently, the model is incorporating design practices and research across a broad spectrum. (...) Somewhat ironically, designers were welcomed into the HCI community just in time to help remake it as a design discipline. A large part of this transformation was the creation of design disciplines that did not exist before. For example, user experience design and interaction design were not imported into HCI, but rather were among the first exports from HCI to the design world. Design is currently the facet of HCI in most rapid flux."

Why do I blog this? some interesting historical elements here about the evolution of HCI, although it's clearly partial, mostly focusing on material, communities and conferences from UK/North America and a bit of Scandinavia.

IKEA hardware hacking

IKEA furniture hacking has always been an intriguing topic to me. Thinking that people would use IKEA artifacts and repurpose them to create original and personalized objects is strikingly interesting and important. I was therefore curious to read more about how people would treat this hardware as raw material for creative project in this CHI 2009 paper called "Learning from IKEA Hacking: “Iʼm Not One to Decoupage a Tabletop and Call It a Day" by Daniela Rosner and Jonathan Bean. The article describes the motivations for IKEA hacking and analyses the implication of information technology for DIY practices. Some excerpts I found interesting:

"the actual act of it is pretty satisfying too—the measuring, the cutting… there is definitely an added dimension of satisfaction if there is no template.” Another participant suggested he views the creative work involved with IKEA hacking as distinct from the challenges of his job. “I'm not a ‘real’ builder, I'm a web designer,” he reported. This sense of haptic satisfaction (...) IKEA hacking is partially an appropriation of the cultural meaning of IKEA. One participant said that IKEA had “no style,” explaining when pressed that “there's style but style is lost when too many people buy the same brand,” and others seem to like the ironic idea of using IKEA products in unintended ways. (...) IKEA hackers provide fascinating insights into the quickly shrinking division between the online world of bits and the material world of everyday stuff. We found that people are using ideas based in online culture to transform physical artifacts in three ways. First, we saw the application of metaphors and procedures associated with the online world to the material world: furniture can be “hacked,” the environment can be “programmed.” Second, we saw people using online tools to facilitate manipulations of material artifacts; we saw how DIY culture is moving the workshop from the garage to the web forum. Third, we noted a changing sense of creativity and identity. How can we support new models of collaborative design and design tools that incorporate creative thinking and tinkering? IKEA hacking points to the need for a more critical engagement with DIY culture and further reflection on the impact of online communities on identity and creativity"

Why do I blog this? a fascinating example of bricolage/DIY/tinkering practice that emerges from our contemporary culture.

Pneumatic mail and flows of information made explicit

My hotel last week in San Francisco had this fascinating mail transit system that allowed people to drop letters in this pneumatic-like system parallel to the elevators. You can leave your letter at the floor you're located (picture above) and it drops down the collecting box downstairs.

Why do I blog this? fascination towards this sort of communication system (as a first step in the sending of snail mail) that embeds an intriguing physical component. However, I haven't seen any mail/postcard going through it apart from the one I sent the day after I discovered such a device.

What I find interesting here, although it's rarely employed today, is the possibility to visualize the information flow. To some extent, it makes explicit an rather invisible phenomenon (communication). A sort of similar (and more quiet) version of Palantir (the vizualization of facebook data on the globe):

Computerized dispatched

When "computerized dispatched" becomes a selling point for cab customers. See last week in San Francisco.

Do you really wanna know the underlying process that made this cab approaching you (phone calls, location-based services, etc.)? Or will you be more confident that this cab company is efficient because of the computerized dispatching? Or less confident?

Space-time trails and locative technologies

(Pictures of space-time trails in CatchBob!, nothing really related to the paper below, just found it illustrative of this digital trail notion)

Perusing "Where Were We: Communities for Sharing Space-Time Trails" by Scott Counts and Marc Smith, I was interested by this notion of "space-time trails".

Constituted by the movement of people in space indeed forms an interesting social object. Space-time trails incorporate both a collection of spatial positions with relationships to one another along with sensor and community-based annotations (photographs, video, environmental sensor data, physiological attributes, community-based content such as tags and comments). According to the authors:

"We argue that space-time trails, or routes, include an intentionality on the part of the user that contains more information than a collection of points. A route has a start and finish, as well as properties like time, distance, speed, directional orientation, numbers of stops, and so on. When browsing, retracing, mining, recommending, and searching, these collective and relational attributes can be leveraged for a significantly richer end-user experience than could a collection of points. (...) The sum of these changes could be considered to be a kind of “pervasive inscription revolution”, an era in which practices of inscription explode to include almost all human actions and interactions. The signs of the expansion of inscription are visible in the behavior patterns seen in many online services."

Why do I blog this? interested in how "routes" and "trails" becomes social documents enriched with other forms of information (beyond synchronous/real-time location-awareness). Some interesting new practices can emerge out of this and lots of issues regarding privacy are about to be discussed.

*you are here*

The different way to express the famous "you are here" sign on maps (San Francisco, Zürich, Geneva, Saint Etienne and Zürich again). Regardless of the map type (w/o transportation system, with different granularities of environmental description and scale differences), the way your position is indicated can be described in a wide array of signs. Circles w/o arrows, w/o the "you are here" symbol, etc.

Perhaps the best one is the following: a sign which indicates that you are where you are ("here"):

Definition of "black-boxing"

A quick definition of "black-boxing" by Bruno Latour (in Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies): a process by which

"scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one need focus only on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. Thus, paradoxically, the more science and technology succeed, the more opaque and obscure they become."

okay to play here / not okay to play here

Each places have their own rules. It's okay to play on this giant and empty parking lot above (Santa Monica) but this bench below in Venice depicts clear signs of defensible space (to prevent skateboarders to grind the curb). In one case the sign is explicit, in the other, it's rather a deterrent than a proper sign.

"Paper direct"

Encountered last week-end in Venice, Los Angeles. Still about press, I am fascinated by foreign press available as these A3 sheets of papers sold straight from the printer. Far from the complex e-paper technology, these very low-cost one-sided magazines show an interesting trend about the importance of physical artifacts. Besides, the name of this service ("paper direct") is conspicuously relevant in these times of frenetic digitalization. Given that it's printed locally, it's an up-to-date instantiation (that prevent you from waiting two or three days to have the same newspaper coming from the guts of an Airbus/Boeing Cargo flight).

Why do I blog this? observing original practices related to media consumption enabled by various technologies. I see this "paper direct" as an interesting signal that seem more usable than they bloody e-book reader that I rarely use.

Browsing time

Highly intriguing notice in this newsstands visited in Venice Beach yesterday afternoon: the indication of the time customers are allowed to flip through the magazines. Temporary consumption of products indicated in the place where you can access them (see of course "The Age of Access" by Jeremy Rifkin). As a customer, you then know the rules you're subjected to and act accordingly.

Interestingly, the duration is conditioned by the type of content one might want to access as attested by these two other signs:

Why do I blog this nothing particular in mind... this is fun at first glance but there are some interesting lessons to draw here about media consumption (signage to prevent certain behavior), the importance of certain types of content (and the inherent need to refrain people from spending too much time on it), design choices (3-5-15? I wonder how the owner made it up!, besides 15 seems quite a long time). The different shapes/typefont of the 3 signs is also curious: as if the norm was this "15 minute browsing" classic sign from back in the day (back in the days before people were soooo much into this "access" meme), followed sometime after by a more temporary "5 minutes ONLY" printed in black-and-white, and eventually by this quick-and-dirty "3-minutes only" sign (as if it reached a climax).

Success evaluation for radical innovation

Gathering some notes about "successes" and "failures" of innovations to improve my talk about foresight failures, I ran across interesting material in Communicating Technology Visions by Tamara Carleton (Funktioneering Magazine. Vol 1, pp. 13). The paper actually shows how measuring only financial and commercial results for a radical innovation is inadequate and that other aspects should be taken into account. She basically shows how "meeting management’s expected sales, profits, market share, andreturn on investment" only offer a partial view. Some excerpts I found relevant to my research:

"For radical innovations, this default definition presents a thorny issue. There is an assumption that all innovations are predicated on financial results. Many experts today consider the Apple iPod to be a successful example of a highly radical technological innovation, and most would argue that the product was radically innovative from the start. However, if the iPod was measured solely in terms of financial profit based on its first few years on the market, then its proof as a successful innovation is not as strong or convincing. (...) Radical innovations may be truly radical and innovative without necessarily producing monetary gains. There are at least three ways to be considered radically innovative. An innovation could create an entirely new market or product catego- ry, such as the Honda Insight, the first American hybrid vehicle that laid the foundation for other cars like the Toyota Prius to follow. Or an innovation might generate a significantly new customer base but still not produce revenue, such as Napster, the original file-sharing service for music. Or an innovation may introduce a new technological application that is recast as novel or revolutionary in a different market without generating lasting financial returns. This would be the adoption of text messaging in the U.S., years aftewidespread phenomenon in Europe. (...) There is another problem in using the common test of success. Financial information about a radical innovation must be available and unambiguous. (...) Historical analysis will identify radical innovations clearly in terms of success and failure, but investigation of contemporary or budding innovations for the future require different metrics."

Why do I blog this? some good elements here about the definition of "success". Given my interest in "failures", it's important as it helps to symmetrically rethink what is a failure: a commercial failure is not necessarily an innovation failure as described in the example above.