[Concept] Wimbledonization

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(via) Wimbledonization: This is a term used to describe London's financial prowess through analogy with the world's number 1 tennis tournament. Just as in the tennis where British players seldom do well, so with the City of London, British banks are not the reason why the City is so successful.

[LifeHack] text editor for mac .txt addicts

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Super recap about all the most important text editor. I also strongly believe in .txt files (I still have 10 years old txt file somewhere on my hard drive). On the Mac, I use subethaedit

Look, I'm only writing this for one reason: I want to know if there are lots of other people out there who are like me. Text editor addicts. (...) This is how I work, too. My todo files are good old plain text files, which I make a point of keeping well edited and up to date. As Danny said, there's nothing simpler than cut and paste. (...) My central file, the most important one, is todo.work.txt. Almost everything related to my current work is in there in some form or another. I have to be able to edit it a dozen or more times a day, and I have to do so quickly and without any fuss. (...) Some of the things I use a text editor for:
  1. Writing letters
  2. Making shopping lists
  3. Storing electronic invoices and receipts
  4. Managing lists of things (to read, to visit, to remember, to make)
  5. Editing files and templates for web sites
  6. Writing articles
  7. Pretending to write novels and works of fiction (none of which ever get finished)
  8. Writing my resume
  9. Writing a personal diary
  10. Composing posts for weblogs and mailing lists
  11. Writing, and storing, drafts for all of the above
  12. Keeping my todo.work.txt file up to date

[Research] A new lab we should keep an eye on

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Rochester Institute of Technology's Lab for Social Computing is a new lab that seems promising. They already set up a wiki with links on private lab andacademics working in the field. Their PR is nicely done since I saw many posts in my aggregator talking about it :)

Cyberinfrastructure has been defined by the NSF as a tool for building digital environments that support collaboration and interaction among people, data, information, and tools. Social computing is an emerging cross-disciplinary field focused on the use of computing tools to facilitate these social and collaborative interactions. It is concerned with the development, deployment, and assessment of tools ranging from e-mail and IM to weblogs, wikis, and collaborative information management systems.

Research activities in the Lab for Social Computing will focus on the development of new collaborative tools for use in research, education, and industry, as well as on the adaptation, use, and effects of collaboration and communication tools in these contexts.

[Locative Media] Fake your position!

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I was amazingly interested by the report about GeoNotes usage: P.Persson and P.Fagerberg (2002). Geonotes: a real-use study of a public location-aware community system (.pdf). Technical Report SICS-T2002/27-SE, SICS, University of Goteborg, Sweden. This is going to be the next issue with locative media: how people will cheat and how designers will take this into account!

Although not confirmed, 2 labels appeared to be faked ("England" and "centralen" [normally designating a metro station far from Kista]).

[Tech] Buddy Bugs: bugs and instant messenging

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Buddy Bugs is an ambient peripheral physical interface that represents Windows® Instant Messenger contact list, where people are represented by glass bugs on a leaf..

Touching a bug initiates an instant messaging conversation.  Buddy Bugs’ basic ideas include: making status information of a few key people more readily available; using its physical form as a peripheral display that can be situated appropriately in the environment; and taking advantage of people’s spatial memory by having contacts associated with bugs at particular positions on the leaf. The leaf is made from papier machiêr to exhibit natural and organic characteristics. 

I really like the design of the bug!

[Future] My notes on Bruce Sterling's talk in munich

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Here are my notes on Bruce Sterling's talk in Munich. It was about his spime concept.

Shaping Things to Come: there are six trends, convergent and integral part of a general concept, six sides of a black box:
  1. interactive ships, objects can be labelles with unique identity
  2. local and precise positioning systems
  3. powerful search engines
  4. 3d virtual models of objects
  5. rapid prototyping of objects
  6. cradle to cradle recycling

[Future] My notes on Bruce Sterling's talk in munich

in

Here are my notes on Bruce Sterling's talk in Munich. It was about his spime concept.

Shaping Things to Come: there are six trends, convergent and integral part of a general concept, six sides of a black box:
  1. interactive ships, objects can be labelles with unique identity
  2. local and precise positioning systems
  3. powerful search engines
  4. 3d virtual models of objects
  5. rapid prototyping of objects
  6. cradle to cradle recycling

[Research] Still trying to sketch a better definition of mutual modeling

in

I am trying to define mutual modeling as something more process-oriented. I defined it earlier as the "representation of the partner cognitive state, namely inferences an individual make about his/her partner’s goals, purposes, intents, understanding". Now that I read some claims about Sperber and Wilson (1986), I would say that mutual modeling includes 2 processes

  1. awareness: monitoring other's (activities)
  2. interpreting (inferring?) theses facts as (i) relevant, (ii) manifest for the joint activity carried out by the group.

but what about mutual influencing, perspective taking, mutual modeling?????

[Research] Engestrom's structure of activity

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Engestrom, Y. (1990). Learning, working, and imagining: Twelve studies in activity theory. Helsinki, Finland: Orienta-Konsultit Oy.
I am currently using it to describe the CatchBob activity.

Engestrom (1990) proposes a schematic view of activity involving mediation. &&In the model, the subject refers to the individual or subgroup whose agency is chosen as the point of view in the analysis. The object refers to the &raw material' or &problem space' at which the activity is directed, and which is moulded or transformed into outcomes with the help of physical and symbolic, external and internal tools (mediating instruments and signs). The community is composed of multiple individuals and/or subgroups who share the same general objective. The division of labour refers to both the horizontal division of tasks between the members of the community and to the vertical division of power and status. Finally, the rules refer to the explicit and implicit regulations, norms and conventions that constrain actions and interactions within the activity system.''

[Research] Engestrom\'s structure of activity

in

Engestrom, Y. (1990). Learning, working, and imagining: Twelve studies in activity theory. Helsinki, Finland: Orienta-Konsultit Oy.
I am currently using it to describe the CatchBob activity.

Engestrom (1990) proposes a schematic view of activity involving mediation. &&In the model, the subject refers to the individual or subgroup whose agency is chosen as the point of view in the analysis. The object refers to the &raw material' or &problem space' at which the activity is directed, and which is moulded or transformed into outcomes with the help of physical and symbolic, external and internal tools (mediating instruments and signs). The community is composed of multiple individuals and/or subgroups who share the same general objective. The division of labour refers to both the horizontal division of tasks between the members of the community and to the vertical division of power and status. Finally, the rules refer to the explicit and implicit regulations, norms and conventions that constrain actions and interactions within the activity system.''

[Research] Interesting discussion with Alex

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In order to keep track of interesting stuff, I report here the discussion we had with Alex about user-centered design on Future now.

One of the perogatives of being a blog author is that you can elevate interesting comments to the level of posts. When I saw that John Thackara had left a comment on my post on "Design books as weak signal" I figured this was an opportunity to invoke that privilege. Not uncharacteristically, Nicholas Nova comments first: I think your're right, something's happening out there. However, even though I found all those books nice, interesting and relevant, their conclusion are somehow all the same: focus on people/context/processes and not on technology... Well of course, there are some differences but since Donald Norman's "the design of everyday things" or "things that make us smart", this is a known fact... maybe I'm wrong and taking user into account is obvious for us but not for others (in the cscw course we give here at EPFL, it's crazy to see the engineer-approach of design, so technology-driven).

From a quantitative point of view though, the number of books about this is impressive, it means, as you mentioned, that there is a global move.

A couple days later, John Thackara replies: When I see the words "nice" (Nicolas) and "sensible" (Alex), it's like a dagger in the heart. I live in fear that we people-centered design persons are going to get denounced and/or ridiculed for:

a) being social engineers without a mandate; b) lacking a sense of humour.

If post-tech-push social innovation is about being "good" it will fail, and deserve to do so. It needs to be edgy, controversial, upsetting, and funny.

I suppose there's always the danger in theory that a critic will actually be noticed by an author, but you never really expect it. (Or I never do, anyway.)

So to clarify. My reaction to this literature has the same roots as Nicholas': I agree with their arguments, and find them logical enough to wonder why they need to be made at all. After all, you want to make things that people will buy; you do that by making things that people will use; and you make things that people will use by making them (to quote the Roman poet Horace) dulce et utile, beautiful and useful. (Latin scholars out there, if I've misspelled that, please let me know.)

I mean, what's not to agree with there?

To some degree, Kim Vicente's book does a better job of being usefully controversial by scaring you: he makes a great case for just how dangerous bad design can be. Tens of thousands of people die in hospitals every year from preventable medical errors, many of which could be avoided if hospitals and hospital technology were designed so that overworked nurses and sleep-deprived residents could use them more reliably. Leonardo's Laptop also takes a stab at arguing how users should rebel against bad design, but ultimately (to my mind) is overwhelmed by its own reasonableness.

From what I've read of Thackara's other work, though, I suspect that In the Bubble won't suffer the same faults. I certainly hope not. As I wrote last year, I thought "The Post-Spectacular City" was "deeply opinionated, pointed, and infuriating. Probably the best thing I can say about it is that it's not something to be consumed passively, but engaged and interacted with. It's the kind of writing with which you can fruitfully disagree." Rereading the piece again now, I have the same reactions: some of it bugs me, some of it I agree with, and all of it makes me think.

John's right: "post-tech-push social innovation... needs to be edgy, controversial, upsetting, and funny." Let's hope he usefully stirs the pot.

[Future] Artist rankings: chart-based reputation system

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Reputation system are now everywhere. I was googling a bit on an artist I like and I stumbled across the curve reproduced below. They state that

The Artfacts.Net Artist Ranking is for information purposes only, and is not intended for trading purposes. The electronic chart is based on the data currently available to Artfacts.Net and should be only viewed as an aid to understand an artist's exhibition career in relation to the other artists stored in the Artfacts.Net Ranking System.

[Life Hack] Next Life Hack Event

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There's gonna be a Life Hack session at Emerging Tech Conference by Danny O'Brien and Merlin Mann

We'll take a whistle-stop tour through an amazing year in this exploding field: tracking apps that merge the geek's command-line power with GUI ease-of-use; the expansion of RSS and wiki techniques into frontline organizing apps; the spread of search and script automation onto the desktop; how plain text files are the new rock and roll.

[Research] Mogi Mogi Test

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Mogi Mogi, the french game tested in Japan works pretty well. Here are few results (I am to lazy to translate it in english) they delivered at the FING (pdf, in french). I also found that this company is partly owned by france telecom.

A propos des joueurs:
  1. Ce sont au départ des joueurs très occasionnels, ils se connectent la première fois parce qu’ils ont 5mn à tuer : c’est lié au mobile et à l’expérience « interstitielle »
  2. Limiter à 10% du jeu les nécessités de détour (mais la qualité de l’expérience lors de ces moments est essentielle) ; il faut prendre en considération que les joueurs peuvent être pressés, qu’il peut pleuvoir, qu’il peut ne plus y avoir de métro, etc.
  3. Nécessité de connaître leur mode vie et leurs attentes, afin de voir si un nouvel élément du jeu va être apprécié.
  4. Les joueurs sont souvent nombreux à passer aux mêmes endroits (ce qui facilite les interactions immédiates ou différées). Il y a une forte contiguïté géographique : aux concepteurs de mettre les ressources là où les joueurs passent souvent.
  5. Des phénomènes d’addiction peuvent exister, avec des anecdotes : on joue en conduisant ; on fait le tour de la ville en métro dès qu’il y a de nouveaux objets... Un joueur s’est plaint parce qu’il a fait un voyage pour rien, pour un objet qui n’apparaissait en fait que les soirs de pleine lune.

Les difficultés de la création du jeu :

    <li<Attention à ne pas envoyer les joueurs dans des endroits dangereux et inaccessibles
  1. La densité des éléments de « décor » (ville / campagne...) varie beaucoup et complique la création du jeu
  2. Des écarts culturels sont constatés : les Japonais ne se rencontrent pas physiquement, même s’ils sont proches, à l’inverse lors d’une expérimentation en France (avec Nokia, auprès de journalistes), des rendez-vous se sont pris tout de suite !
  3. Différences de géolocalisation entre opérateurs : faire cohabiter deux topographies (GPS ou Cell ID)
  4. La protection de la vie privée est un problème de game design : on ne peut pas tracer les joueurs, il faut le laisser être déclaratif dans sa position, mais en même temps il faut éviter la triche.

[Tech] Heads-Up versus Heads-Down Display

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A comparison of heads-up and heads-down display in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Comparison of head-up display (HUD) vs. head-down display (HDD): driving performance of commercial vehicle operators in Taiwan a paper by Yung-Ching Liu and Ming-Hui Wen.

This study investigates the effects of two different display modes—head-up display (HUD) vs. head-down display (HDD) on the driving performance and psychological workload ratings of drivers operating commercial vehicles in Taiwan. Twelve commercial lorry drivers participated in a 2 (high/low driving load road)×2 (head-up/head-down display)×2 (different arrangements of display sequences used) mixed-factor driving simulation experiment. Participants were divided into two groups according to the level of driving load conditions within each driving load group; the participants were further divided into another 2 subgroups based on two arrangements of display sequences used. For each driving load condition, there were two 20-min driving simulation experiments, separated by a display sequence using head-up first and then head-down or vice versa. The subjects were asked to perform four tasks: "commercial goods delivery", "navigation", "speed detection and maintenance" and "response to an urgent event". Results indicated that for the first task, commercial goods delivery, the two display types showed no significant performance difference in terms of average accuracy rate. However, in terms of response time to an urgent event, it was faster with the HUD (with a low driving load—head-up vs. head-down: 1.0073 vs. 1.8684 s; with a high driving load—head-up vs. head-down: 1.3235 vs. 2.3274 s) and speed control was more consistent (having low speed variations) than with the HDD. In addition, using the HUD caused less mental stress for the drivers than the HDD and was easier for first-time users to become familiar with; with a high driving load, however, the difference between the two displays was not significant.

The first picture depicts the HUD and the second shows the HDD: