Data Should Inform But Not Determine

In this entry I will continue to explore the implications of the growing trend related to the creation of measurement and tracking systems for the optimization of life. On my previous post I failed to adress the impact of our decisions regarding what to measure on the way we lead our lives.

As we continue to leverage data to support and guide our actions and decisions, the selection of what to measure will become increasingly important. What we measure will identify what we deem to be most important, and will provide a foundation for our actions and decision making. In other words, the data will serve as a reflection of our world view as well as a basis for the reality that we strive to bring into existence in our life.

As a consequence the information systems that we create, which processes this information, will also grow in importance. It will play an enabling and limiting role in our lives. In the word of Terry Winograd , in "designing information systems we design ways of being." This will be more true than ever before as technology encroaches in the day-to-day lives of most individuals (at least in industrialized nations), no longer relegated to professional organizations and pursuits. Lawrence Lessig shared the same idea in his famous quote "code is law".

What does this all mean to me - it is now more important than ever that the creation of information systems be guided by the interests and active involvement of people that come from all different avenues within our society (rather than merely engineers, developers and programmers). 

Also, echoing a sentiment from my previous post, as individuals we need to remember to empower ourselves rather than data from outside. We can't loose sight that the data we are capturing and processing is ultimately nothing more than a guide posts that we have selected. The choices we make should be informed by data but not determined by it.

Monitoring, Tracking, and Behavior Changing

During the past several months there has been an upsurge in interest about the behavioral changing potential offered by new monitoring and tracking technologies.

The July issue of Wired magazine ran a cover story titled "Living by Numbers: Track your data. Analyze results. Optimize your life. " This piece focused on the emergence of monitoring and tracking technologies that have become available across a wide range of areas. Recent issues of Make and Interactions, respectively titled "Remake America" and "The Waste Manifesto", magazines also focused on possibilities created by these technologies to help us reduce waste and live in more a more sustainable manner.

These technologies enable individuals and communities to generate data regarding various types of activities and the impact of these activities, and then to leverage this data for various purposes ranging from behavioral change (e.g. tracking your runs for performance improvement, as in Nike+ ), to scientific research (e.g. making available personal data for aggregate analysis) and artistic self-expression (e.g. capturing data for lifestreaming, a la Nicholas Feltron).

These various new technologies provide us the opportunity to understand more about, and to impact, our current behavior at individual and community levels. However, the existence of these technologies is not sufficient to drive positive change. we must now design and discover compelling and effective ways to implement these technologies to help individuals and communities to achieve their goals. Articles in both Wired and Make magazines showcase examples where the sharing of data, and the development of games related to this sharing, has helped drive change for individuals and communities.

As we look for opportunities to dissect and analyze our life with these tools we need to be mindful that not everything can be parsed into measurable units for tracking and monitoring.

Life is much more than what can be grasped and measured by our rational mind. We need to remember that all the optimizing in the world is not the solution to make us happier or more fulfilled. If we reduce our experience of life and reality to metrics (in the form of numbers and words) that our mind can easily classify and optimize we will miss out on an important part of the experience of life, which is unmeasurable. At least that is my half-assed new age-y spiritual beliefs lead me to surmise.

Jailbreaking and Calendar Making

Technology planning for our world tour continues unabated as our departure date looms closer and closer. I'm happy to report some progress and successes have been made during the past few days with my old iPhone and the World Tour calendar.

First and foremost I was able to get my jailbroken iPhone to work on T-mobile's network. I received a PrePaid sim card that worked with little fanfare. That's right, I am no longer a captive prisoner held back by ridiculous contracts and code. This is an important development because I now know that I can use this phone with third party GSM sim cards from around the world during our world tour.

For anyone who is interested in learning more about how to jailbreak your iPhone here is the set of resources that I used. It was pretty straightforward, the heavy lifting has been done by others.

Please note that there are risks inherent in this process and I cannot vouch that it will work on your phone nor can I guarantee that it won't have negative long term impact on your device. In other words, do this at your own risk.

The most helpful resource that I discovered was the iPhone Blog. Here you can find step by step instructions on how to jailbreak your iPhone using the Pwnage tool. Make sure to read all the the instructions once over before you attempt to jailbreak your iPhone. I believe there is little risks of permanent damage. However, you may end up having to do it several times as I was forced to.

Another helpful resource is the modmyi.com's wiki Pwnage 2.x Guide page. This resource also features step by step instructions on how to jailbreak your iPhone. However, I think the instructions featured here only work if you have previously jailbroken your iPhone using Pwnage (they differ in only one way from the instructions on the iPhone Blog, which did work for me).

The second area in which I have been making some progress is on the official tour calendar. I've set this up using google calendar and it includes all locations, flights, and dates from our trip. I've also created a second calendar with logistical information for Lauren and me (e.g. hotel names, wedding even schedules, etc). The purpose of this calendar is to serve as a planning and sharing tool. Here is a link to the latest and greatest version:



Here is my next steps for this week:

• Identify capture and publishing solutions for audio, video, images, and text on iPhone.
• Create blog and test out the publishing solutions.
  
• Develop list of additional technology requirements such as cameras, book readers.
  

Dancing and Traveling

During the past several weeks I have been devoting less time to my interaction and experience design journal for two reasons: Lauren and I have been planning an around the world the trip for this summer; and we have been rehearsing for a dance performance that we delivered at a friend's wedding this past weekend.

The good news is that these preparations are coming to an end. The not so good news is that I won't be able to get back to my curriculum because I've decided to take a detour and focus on considering what aspects of technology, culture, design, and experiences I can explore during our trip around to world.

There are two main perspectives on digital communication technologies that I want to explore: first, I want to leverage technology to capture and share my and Lauren's experiences; second, I want to investigate how different cultures relate to technology and are designing and adopting technology to support local endeavors.

From a personal perspective I am looking for a mobile/portable solution that will enable me to capture and publish experiences from this trip. This solution will include multiple hardware and software products. Here is a brief overview of the tools currently under consideration:

• Personal communication hub: the main contender for my personal communication hub is my first generation (aka 2G) jailbroken iPhone. This device would enable me to capture quick snapshots, lo-res video, audio, and journal entries. The main downside of selecting the iPhone as my platform is that I will not be able to publish directly from the iPhone, even in a wifi area, as I have not found any acceptable blogging apps. A secondary drawback is that the 2G iPhone has lower quality audio and video capabilities (available on jailbroken phones only), and no GPS. I am not willing to take a laptop due to considerations related to portability (we'll be on a 34-day trip) and theft.
• Additional devices: I will also definitely take a camera for higher quality photos and video. I am uncertain about whether I will be willing to invest in a new Canon G10 - the temptation is strong, it is hard to resist. We will likely take our existing camera as well, a Canon SD950.
• Publishing tools: to publish all of the content that we capture and create I plan to use several platforms including a blog (on blogger), my existing flickr account, google calendar and maps, daytum, and youtube; I'm still considering if and how to integrate twitter and facebook without driving myself crazy.
  

From an observer's perspective (with no real claim of being objective) I want to explore how people from different cultures leverage familiar technologies in different ways; and what different technologies they have developed that are specific to local contexts.

For example, how are mobile phones used differently based on local cultural, and economic contexts; what different services are available, and how have they adapted other services to meet their needs; what meaning does the society ascribe to cell phones.

Over the next three weeks I will share more about the technology-related aspects of the planning for this trip. Once we are off I will also document how technology ultimately enhanced, or totally screwed up, our trip (after all I do believe that technology can be both a force of good and evil).

Statement of Purpose for ITP

I am excited for this opportunity to share with you more about what I am up to. Below I have posted the statement of purpose that I submitted with my application to the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.

Writing this piece was difficult and cathartic. It required that I take a long and hard look at the reasons why I am pursuing this goal, and do a good bit of soul searching to identify which questions I want to explore in this program. This process forced me to start to crystalize what I want to create through my involvement at ITP. At the end of it all, I was more excited and energized than ever to pursue this path.

Over the next two years I will work to bring into existence many of the possibilities that I discuss in this piece. I look forward to sharing my experiences while on this journey, both the successes and failures. Not to mention that I'm sure I'll need guinea pigs from time to time. My only request in sharing this with you is that you feel free to share your own thoughts and ideas in return.

Statement of Purpose

"I’ve cultivated a passion for design and technology since I was teenager. My interest in design has inspired me to undertake numerous personal projects spanning industrial, graphic, web, and sound design, while my passion for technology has supplied valuable tools that have supported my projects and opened doors to new experiences. The increasingly pervasive role that technology plays in my life has given me a deeper understanding of the ways in which people engage with technology. As users of technology, we constantly shift between acting “through” it, as a tool, and acting “on” it, as an object of engagement itself.

I have become fascinated with the possibility of combining these passions in a new configuration: acting “through” design in order to act “on” technology. It is evident to me that the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University is the right place for me to explore this convergence of design and technology.

My interest in harnessing the power of design to enhance technology is not for technology’s own sake. It is driven by a belief that technology can have positive and negative consequences. Designers have an important role to play in shaping the evolution of technology by appropriately designing our interactions with, and through, technology.

On a personal level, I am inspired by the power of technology to enable connections between people, and to communicate meaning in engaging new ways. My iPhone has revolutionized the way I stay connected to people, content and places, and has also altered my expectations regarding their accessibility. The Nintendo Wii, by designing interactions that mimic the familiar gestures we use to do things in the physical world, enabled me to connect with friends who had no previous interest in video games.

The power of technology is ever more defined by its ability to connect people to other people, communities, and organizations. As a marketing communications professional I have realized that people have become empowered by technology to challenge the control once held by corporations over distribution of information. Traditional marketing communications now compete with the voices of millions of individuals, who on an aggregate level have a higher degree of credibility. At the same time, the connective power of technology has enabled the fragmentation of society into distinct communities that subscribe to different beliefs and value systems.

These are some of the realizations that have sparked my desire to experiment with design of technology-based interactions and experiences. My pursuit of this goal is driven by passion, curiosity, discipline, and integrity.

I designed a three-year plan and curriculum to channel my passion and curiosity in a disciplined manner. The first phase, currently in progress, is focused on building a theoretical foundation of knowledge through consumption and production of content that supports the development of an analytical design-perspective. The second phase concentrates on development of design production skills using a project-based approach that provides opportunities for learning through practice. The curriculum will then culminate with a focus on creativity driven by an integration of my analytical and production skills through continuous theoretical and hands-on engagement.

I have used similar strategies to achieve other important personal goals. When I moved to New York City in January of 1999, I created a similar plan to pursue DJing. After three years I was transformed from having no knowledge of how to spin records to moonlighting as a DJ with bi-weekly residences at popular parties in downtown lounges and clubs.

These pursuits have other important features in common: a genuine desire to share something of great personal value, and a focus on integrity. Sharing the joy and energy that music brought to my life was key to my success as a DJ. Acting with integrity also contributed to my accomplishments, though until recently I failed to notice that my actions did not support this same goal at a community level. I’ve realized that acting with integrity includes not only standing by my own promises. It also requires holding others accountable for their commitments. I failed to notice that I had too often sacrificed my authenticity and honesty because I was afraid of hurting someone’s feelings or not being liked.

This failure undermined my ability to grow as a leader and to contribute to the growth of other individuals within my personal and professional communities. Now, while I still place emphasis on getting along with others, I am also conscious that my integrity depends on direct and honest communications.

My interest in human growth and development is one of my main inspirations for applying to ITP. Beyond investigating how to improve interfaces with machines, I want to explore how technology can enhance the way human beings experience the world. How can technology create constructive new ways for people to communicate? How can we guide its continued expansion into our physical and social worlds so that it has a positive impact on the way we conceive and communicate our identity and individuality? How can it help to transform our consciousness so we depend less on a conditioned response and become more actively engaged?

I also want to explore how technology can be made accessible to a greater number of people. How can we create new and more natural and delightful ways for human beings to interact with computational devices? How can we enable communities of people who have special needs such as illiteracy or disability to interact with computational devices?

I know that the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU would provide me with unrivaled opportunities to investigate these areas of interest. I am attracted by the program’s focus on hands-on experimentation and the self-directed project-based framework on which it is built. I have limited experience writing code and building physical computing devices, but I have passion and desire to learn, which is evidenced by the assortment of cell phones and computers I’ve collected for hacking.

I have already started down the path of interaction design, and I would consider it an honor if I could integrate studies at ITP into my journey. In return I am eager to dedicate my passion, energy, commitment, and contagious optimism to ensure the continued success of this program."

Reading List: Interactions, January & February 2008

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a few weeks now. The hectic pace of our do-more-with-less, post-financial-crisis, and always-on/always-connected world, has kept me from finding two spare hours to devote to this simple endeavor.

This month's edition of Interactions magazine featured several interesting pieces that are well worth the read. Here is brief overview of the most interesting ones, along with a link to the original article online.

Social Network Sites and Society: Current Trends and Future Possibilities
Written by Nicole Ellison, Cliff Lampe, and Charles Steinfield, this article focuses on exploring how social network sites are transforming society. As this technology becomes adopted by a greater swath of the population, it impact becomes more pronounced. The information available in social networks lowers the barrier to social interaction, helping individuals forge connections that would have otherwise not taken place. Social networks also make it easier for people to manage weak ties by lowering the amount of effort required to keep these relationships alive.

Social networks also help counteract the increasing isolation created by the proliferation of mobile communication and entertainment devices such as iPhones, PDAs, iPods, PSPs and the like. These technologies inhibit opportunities for engagement between people in public spaces. The ability to connect people with similar interests or concerns makes social networks ideal places to assist the coordination and mobilizing of social actions.

Some interesting questions for research are raised by the authors: “how can the power of social network sites be leveraged in other contexts, including formal organizations? How can social network sites support individuals as they make life transitions, such as moving to a new city or starting a new job? How can the mobilizing power of social network sites increase community and political engagement, especially among traditionally disenfranchised groups?” [link to article]

90 Mobiles in 90 Days: A Celebration of Ideas for Mobile User Experience
This article, written by Rachel Hinman, explores a personal project she undertook to come up with a new idea related to mobile design and user experience every day for 90 days. This process, though daunting at first, provided the author with several interesting insights. First, this prolific creation of new design ideas provided a "template for creative practice" by shifting the focus from an attempt to find the right idea to a process of idea generation and exploration, which carried with it a unique momentum.



As part of this shift in perspective, the author had to come face to face with her own inner critic that served as a barrier to the daily idea generation work. The last insight imparted bythe author is how this process of idea generation helped her gain a deeper understanding regarding the source of inspiration, which can come from pretty much anywhere. So now the question is: when will embark in similar project of my own. [link to article]

The Washing Machine That Ate My Sari – Mistakes in Cross-Cultural Design
This article, written by Apala Chavan, Douglas Gorney, Beena Prabhu, Sarit Arora, adresses common mistakes and issues in the design of products for emerging markets. Their main premise is that designers have had to deal with the challenges associated to launching products across markets and cultures for a long time but have only recently begun to adapt their processes and approaches to support the specific challenges related to developing for products for emerging markets. “Successful design for emerging markets requires radical innovation. It demands culturally sensitive and sometimes unorthodox approaches that can throw a designer off balance.”

Designers and marketers are touching the lives of people who a few years ago were not even on the radar. These people from emerging markets have specific needs. First, they demand affordability. However, they are also more cautious than “consumers” in the West because of their limited income. This means that products must be durable, as people will avoid products that seem to be of low quality or disposable. To complicate matters, culture has a large impact on a product’s success on functional and emotional levels. As a consequence, designers need to understand the specific needs of each emerging market in which they plan to launch their product. [link to article]

The Heterogeneous Home


This piece, written by Ryan Aipperspach, Ben Hooker, and Allison Woodruff’s, discusses the homogenization of domestic environments, potential negative effects of this phenomena and interesting design concepts for addressing this trend. The homogenization of our homes is caused in large part by the pervasive technology that provides us access to the same “virtual environment” at home as in the office. This phenomena is extended by time shifting technologies that modify our experience of time, and mobile devices that provide anytime, anywhere access to work and home.

The main negative impact that arises from this increasing homogenization of our domestic environment is that it squeezes out our restorative spaces. The concept of the “Heterogeneous Home” was developed to explore solutions for leveraging design and technology to create environments that are offer variations, and are thus able to provide restorative space. You can download the complete Heterogeneous Home sketchbook. [link to article]

Design Versus Innovation: The Cranbrook / IIT Debate
In this interview, Scott Klinker and Jeremy Alexis explore the two contrasting approaches to design education embodied by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and Cranbrook Academy of Art. These oposing perspectives have evolved over the past 20 years into "design" and "design thinking" (also referred to as "innovation"). The former is an experimental and semantic approach, while the latter is methods driven and scientific one. In other words, ITT places stronger emphasis on the importance of observing user needs and behaviors as the basis of design, whereas Cranbrook focuses on the role that artistic inspiration and cultural impulses play in the creation of great design.

Here are some of the interesting questions adresses in this piece: what I'd the role of design in innovation? Or innovation in design? Is design being led astray by too much business thinking? Is design thinking useful without design making? [link to article]

What is Interactions? Are There Different Types?
This was my favorite article from this issue of Interactions. It provides a valuabl overview regarding interactions (including a summary of common interaction models. For my own selfish reasons I am going to provide a slightly more in depth analysis of this piece. There are three different perspectives on interaction that are outlined by the author:

The design-theory view: This is a broad perspective that views all design as design for interaction. It stipulates that all objects created by humans are developed for some type of interaction because to use a product one must interact with it. For example, a chair and a book are designed for interaction, the former for sitting the latter for reading.

The HCI-view This perspective views all interactions as an instance of a feedback loop. "information flows from a system (perhaps a computer or car) through a person and back through the system again." in this view of interaction it is assumed that the person has a goal and that his/her actions are carried out with this goal in mind. Their actions have an impact on the system or environment, which is measured and compared against the goal to determine the next action.

The HCI definition of interaction focuses on dynamic systems only. Static systems such as chairs and books are not considered interactive. There are several variations on the concept of feedback loop. The most well known variation that reflect an HCI perspective are Don Norman's and Bill Verplanks models of interactions.




The Systems-Theory View: simple feedback loop models are useful but somewhat abstract. In these models the person and the system are closely coupled and the nature of the system (and the person) is left unspecified. Once you begin to characterize the system and the person involved in an interaction you can distinguish between various types of systems that emerge. The systems-theory view explores and maps the relationships between these various types of systems.

According to this school of thought, “the process of clicking on a link to summon a new webpage is not “interaction”; it is “reaction.”” In a reaction, the coupling between input and output are fixed. This means that a given action will always produce the same effect. For example, when you click a link on a standard webpage the server acts in pretty much the same way as an automatic door when you walk within the range of its sensors – it reacts. The term interaction only refers to systems where the coupling between output and input is dynamic. There are several other different types of systems explored in this article, including linear, closed-loop, recirculating, self-regulating, first-order, second-order, self-adjusting, and learning. [link to article]

The Evolution of Location-Based Services

I have never been a big fan of GPS. This is not to say that I have anything against this technology, instead this is a product of my being a New Yorker who rarely lives the city (and has a need for such devices). Recently my perspective has begun to change as more interesting location based services have started to pop up. On this topic, here are two interesting links regarding location based services:

Little Spring Design: Location services beyond maps, directions, and local search. Here you will find a list of ideas for services based on GPS technology coupled with understanding of human beings (funny how it helps to add in the human understanding). Some of these services already exists while others I only wish they did. On service idea that I would personally like to lobby for is to be able to check the bus arrival time for the nearest stop on the M15 bus route in Manhattan. Bloomberg please help.

Jennifer Killian (Frog Design): Meriam case study. This is a video about a GPS navigation system that was released in Europe last year. This system definitely shows how GPS systems are quickly moving from functional tools that have been engineered to emotional tools that are designed.

Interactive Foil - Making Touch Displays out of LCD's and Projectors

In the spirit of continuing my investigation into the world of touch interfaces, check out this innovation from Visual Planet (I found out about this invention through interaction design blog). They are releasing an "interactive foil" that can be coupled with a standard LCD or projection display from 30 to 116 inches to deliver touchscreen functionality. Check out the video below of a prototype in action. If the cost is sufficiently low this will further drive the proliferation of touchscreens in public places - in doing so it will open up new opportunities and challenges for interaction designers.

As this technology increasingly becomes more available, it will be interesting to see how people respond to the appearance of touchscreen devices in different places. How will the type of interactions that people are willing to engage in differ based on their context. For example, people will feel comfortable engaging in some types of interactions in the privacy of a back of taxi that they would not be willing to do in a more public place, such as a bus stop.

As an inexperienced and technology-loving designer I have to always remind myself that I have a higher comfort-level with technology-based interactions than most others (my wife can attest to this). This is part of the reason that I have chosen to pursue this curriculum in interaction design - to help unleash the power of computation to enhance our experience of the world and improve quality of life.