luigina ciolfi, interaction design centre cs4826, human-computer interaction 09/04/2002...

Luigina Ciolfi, Interaction Design Centre

CS4826, Human-Computer Interaction09/04/2002

luigina.ciolfi@ul.ie

In recent years, technical and technological research introduced developments like:

• mobile computing• wireless connectivity• miniaturised appliances• sensors• network technologies• wearables, ultra-light devices• ...

Why the Disappearing Computer?

Why the Disappearing Computer?

In other words, computational power is moving away from the desktop and towards an increasingly seamless integration with the physical world.Some examples:

•wearables•sensors•intelligent appliances

In HCI, a new interest emerged around this novel forms of computation/interaction in the mid 80s.

Mark Weiser at Xerox PARC (California, USA) wrote a paper entitled “The World is not a Desktop”.

He proposed his reflections on the need for understanding and designing new ways of interacting with the new technology.To refer to this he coined the phrase “Ubiquitous Computing”

http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/ACMInteractions2.html

Ubiquitous Computing

“What is the metaphor for the computer of the future? The intelligent agent? The television (multimedia)? The 3-D graphics world (virtual reality)? The StarTrek ubiquitous voice computer? The GUI desktop, honed and refined? The machine that magically grants our wishes? I think the right answer is "none of the above", because I think all of these concepts share a basic flaw: they make the computer visible.

A good tool is an invisible tool. By invisible, I mean that the tool does not intrude on your consciousness; you focus on the task, not the tool.

Eyeglasses are a good tool -- you look at the world, not the eyeglasses. The blind man tapping the cane feels the street, not the cane.

Of course, tools are not invisible in themselves, but as part of a context of use. With enough practice we can make many apparently difficult things disappear: my fingers know vi editing commands that my conscious mind has long forgotten. But good tools enhance invisibility” (Mark Weiser).

Ubiquitous Computing

Weiser’s work inspired many researchers all over the world to investigate the potential of new technologies and new forms of interaction, both in academia and industry...

...In the early ‘90s, IBM started an advanced research programme, called Pervasive Computing, dealing with these issues and trying to provide technical innovation.

http://www-3.ibm.com/pvc/index.shtml

Pervasive Computing

“Pervasive computing is about making our lives simpler.Pervasive computing aims to enable people to accomplish an increasing number of personal and professional transactions using a new class of intelligent and portable devices.

It gives people convenient access to relevant information stored on powerful networks, allowing them to easily take action anywhere, anytime.

These new intelligent appliances or "smart devices" are embedded with microprocessors that allow users to plug into intelligent networks and gain direct, simple, and secure access to both relevant information and services.

These devices are as simple to use as calculators, telephones or kitchen toasters.” (from the IBM Pervasive Computing Website)

Pervasive Computing

Is it about the user or the system?

•Mark Weiser’s vision is oriented to the user and one’s cognitive needs. He uses terms like: task, consciousness, user, context of use...

•IBM vision is oriented towards appliances, the commercial production of systems. Keywords are: intelligent and portable devices, powerful networks, microprocessors...

Two different perspectives...can they be integrated?

The Disappearing Computer initiative is sponsored by the EU Information Society and Technology-Future and Emerging Technologies Programme (started in 2001).

http://www.disappearing-computer.net

• Create information artefacts based on new software and hardware architectures that are integrated into everyday objects.

• Look at how collections of artefacts can act together, so as to produce new behaviour and functionality.

• Investigate the new approaches for designing for collections of artefacts in everyday settings, and how to ensure that people’s experience in these new environments is coherent and engaging.

The Disappearing Computer

In this vision, the technology providing these capabilities is unobtrusively merged with real world objects and places, so that in a sense it disappears into the background, taking on a role more similar to electricity -an invisible pervasive medium.

As a consequence, human-centred notions, such as real objects and everyday settings, can come into foreground, rather than the computer-centric ones which have determined the evolution of the computer-as-we-know it.

Artefacts will be able to adapt and change, not just in a random fashion but based on how people use and interact with them.

The Disappearing Computer

The Disappearing Computer

16 projects are currently being developed within the Disappearing Computer initiative.Each project aims to analyse and develop novel technologies in different domains of use: museums, workspaces, domestic environments, educational settings, etc.

The SHAPE and SOb projects are currently being developed at the Interaction Design Centre, Dept. of CSIS.SHAPE focuses on interactive museums exhibits, SOb on the design of auditory interfaces and sonification.

What happens to HCI if the computer disappears?The methods and techniques that constitute HCI as a disclipline are centred on the notion of “interface” (usually related to a computer).

...But the computer has no more the visible form that is commonly associated to computation. The interaction is rather between users and elements of the world (tools, objects, the space itself) enriched with computational properties.

Interaction Design for the Disappearing Computer

Human-??? Interaction

What happens to user studies? What if there is no activity that can be observed and

analysed?

Moving to the domain of creativity.Creative design, experience design: designing something that could happen around and through the new technologies.

• Scenarios: narratives enacting possible interactions• Video prototyping• Observational studies of the domain and related activities to

inspire design

Creating the activity

In what ways the user mental model will be constructed? In what ways users will interpret and internalise the system behaviour?

How to design an effective system image?

In what ways the user will learn how to operate the system?

What is the memorability and learnability of an “invisible” interface?

The invisible interface

What happens to evaluation when there is no interface, or the interface is invisible?

The principles for evaluation have to be re-tailored on the features of the new system.

Evaluating new dimensions of the experience, as for example engagement, flow, seamlessnes.

Evaluation

Links

http://www-3.ibm.com/pvc/index.shtmlhttp://www.disappearing-computer.nethttp://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.htmlhttp://www.personal-ubicomp.com/http://ubicomp.editthispage.com/http://www.teco.edu/huc/http://www.disappearing-computer.net/projects.html