Gesture and Touch Based Interface: G-Speak from Oblong

Check out this new gesture- and touch-based interface that was developed by Oblong technologies. I came across this video on the Interaction Design Blog - as they rightfully state, this is the closest thing I've seen to the interface from Minority Report. The demo itself is pretty awesome. It showcases several cool features from this system, here is a quick overview of these elements:

Three-dimensional navigation that enables users to access content via an interface that can organize data within a three-dimensional environment. This enables users to "directly manipulate" data objects and quickly access to information. This is achieved because users are able to leverage their familiarity with physical space to navigate this virtual world.

This is not to say that users can just rely on their physical-world metaphors to successfully engage with this system. After all, computer-based metaphors always have an aspect of "magic" because the physical actions we carry out have meaning beyond their direct physical impact. Therefore, users will need to learn how to use their hands to pull, turn, push, select and act on objects within this virtual space.

Integration of physical and virtual spaces to enable users to interact seamlessly across multiple computers and screens within a given environment. This is a really cool feature that can enable an user to easily move files between computers and other devices, such as mobile phones. Better yet, users are still be able to manipulate the files using the same interface across any of the connect devices. Compare this to Microsoft's surface which enables users to drag a file on the screen so that it is added to a mobile device. However, in order to handle the file once it is on the mobile device, then the user needs to leverage the mobile-device specific interface.

One additional aspect of this physical-virtual integration is that it allows users to change the physical configuration of the system in order to impact the virtual configuration. This is illustrated in the video when the user rotates the "screen table". The data being displayed on the table rotates along with the physical movement of the table, except for the pointer which is being manipulated by the user. This pointer does not move because the users hold his hand stable to hold the pointer in place. Sounds like a small simple element but it adds a lot of possibilities to the interactions that can be supported by this system.

Collaborative interaction is enabled by the system's multi-user support. Therefore, several users can work simultaneously with the system. It is not clear whether different users can work on different types of tasks simultaneously within the same environment. One additional questions is if multi-task support is provided then what are the requirements and how would the behavior of the system change in order to support this type of usage.

The data interaction and visualization opportunities provided by systems of this type will likely enable humans to interact with increasingly complex and large data sets. I would love to see this system in action first hand. Until that is possible I will have to be content with this vide. Hope you enjoy it as well.



[via Interaction Design Blog]

Issue with Design of "Sharing & Permission" Functionality on MAC OS X Leopard

I am a die hard Apple fan who has been using Macs for over 11-years. Some of the features that I like most about Apple computers is that they are more reliable, less prone to errors, and easier to recover from errors than Window-based PCs - at least based on my personal experience as a regular user of both Macs and PCs. Overall, I find that Macs are better designed than PCs.

Earlier today I came across what I consider to be a major flaw in the design of Apple's Leopard operating system. This issues created the most frustrating experienced I've ever had with a Mac, yet I believe that it can be easily remedied in future OS updates. In this post I will even offer up some of suggestions for how Apple can solve this issue from a user interaction perspective.

What's the Issue
Let's start with the lesson I learned: if you are running Mac OS X Leopard then don't mess with the system's "sharing & permission" preferences for your start-up drive.

So here's what happened. Yesterday I was fixing the "sharing & permission" preferences for my computer's hard drive, which is also my start-up drive. To the right, I've attached an image of the info window where these preferences reside. I made sure that the preferences for "admin" and "everyone" were set-up properly; these were set to "read & write" and "write only (drop box)" respectively. In the process I also set-up the preference for the "system" to "write only (drop box)".

Little did I know that by changing the permission for the "system" I had created a situation where my computer would be unable to start-up. This became apparent this morning when I turned on my MacBook and the system became frozen while on the boot-up screen where the Apple logo appears above a small and round progress indicator.

Since I have a high-comfort level with, and decent working knowledge of my MacBook I suspected that the change I made to the "sharing & permission" preferences could be causing this issue. That said, when I called a local authorized Apple representative here in Brazil (where I am currently visiting my parents) the rep was quick to tell me that this was obviously an issue related to a corrupted hard drive and that I would need to re-install my operating system.

Before going down this painful route, I decided to first take an alternate approach to resolve this situation based on my initial hunch regarding the source of this problem. I rebooted my MacBook as a hard drive by connecting it via firewire to my sister's MacBook. Then I was able to change the system's "sharing & permission" preferences on my computer's hard drive back to its normal state of "read & write".

After having encountered this problem, I checked a pre-Leopard version of the Mac OS X and confirmed that it does not allow users to change the "sharing & permission" privileges of the system. This helps ensure that people did not encounter the problem with which I had to grapple this morning. Check out the sample image on the left. As you can see when "system" is selected the "access" privileges cannot be changed.

Fixing the Issue
There are many ways that this issue can be resolved from a user interaction/experience perspective. Here are some of my suggestions, hopefully Apple will be willing to take one of these to heart:

• When users change the "sharing & permission" preferences for the system, the OS should prompt the user regarding the impact that this action will have; better yet, they should not allow the user to make this change unless they change the start-up drive configuration.
  
• If the user has been able to change the system's "sharing & permission" privileges, then the computer should display an error message that explains the situation and ideally the system should also provide the user with the opportunity to change the access privileges to the drive in questions - using the necessary system admin password, of course.
• In the near term, Apple should make sure that all of its employees are aware of this issue. When speaking to authorized Apple service reps I was informed that this issue was definitely a sign of issues with my hard drive - most likely a sign that the HD was corrupted.

Search Application Design for Flickr

I know that the ability to design custom search engines for Flickr has been around for several years. Many designers have played with this technology and many publications have written short features about these mash-ups. That said, I have not found a recent comprehensive list of the most interesting image search engines out there. So this short post is my stab a creating a list of the best ones out there. I am going for quality rather than quantity here but please let me know if there are any ones I missed (as I know I must have).

Tag-Based Search Engine (Compfight)
Let's start with the simpler search offerings. This applications allow users to search Flickr images by tags and text. The benefit they provide is that the results are displayed in a way that makes it easy for users to scan a large number of images efficiently. This is especially helpful for art directors and designers who are looking for images for their comps or layouts. There are several search engines out there that offer this type of functionality.

Color-Based Search Engine (Multicolr)
Next up is a color-based search engine from Idee Labs. This application allows users to search for images based on colors and color combinations. User interaction is centered on a small pallete of colors located on the right-hand side of the screen. A matrix of images, located to the left of the pallete, displays the search results based on the color selections.

Visual-Based Search Engine (Visual Search)
Visual search is another application from Idee Labs. It enables users to search for images using a combination of text-based input for tags and image based input (e.g. selecting of a representative image from a results page). This search engine allows people to use an iterative process to find the image they are looking for - first they can search by tags, then they can select one of the resulting images to further filter the results. The one issue is that Idee does not support flickr via this search application (they only support searches on the Alamy image library). A similar search engine offering from Idee Labs (called BYO) allows users to upload images to kick-off their search.

Sketch-Based Search Engine (Retrievr)
This search engine takes the idea from the Visual search one step further by allowing you to create a sketch that serves as the search query. They still have to work out a few kinks with this one as the interaction was often sluggish. However, when you get the sketch tool to work properly it is pretty damn cool.

Galaxy-Based Search Results Interface (Tag Galaxy)
You are probably wondering what the hell I mean by Galaxy-based search results interface. It's hard to explain how this interface works but let me give it a shot. Tag Galaxy allows users to search flickr tags using a visual interface that is akin to a galaxy. Every time the user selects a tag the application automatically generates a new galaxy where the main planet is comprised of all images containing the tag that was searched for, while the smaller planets represent tags that are related to the original tag (or main planet). Check it out so that you can make sense of my rambling.

3D Wall Search Results Interface (Cooliris)
This cool search application allows users to search multiple sites including flickr, yahoo!, and google. The really cool feature that it provides is that it serves the results of each query using a 3D wall interface. Unlike the other applications that I've called out here, users need to actually download and install an add-on to their browser in order to use this search engine. Though this is a bit annoying I found that it was definitely worth it.

Now Build Your Own
Here is a tutorial from Tech Labs on how to make your own Flickr search engine. This will at least get you started with an understanding of the Flickr API. Though the API seems to be simple enough, the work needed to bring your creative idea to life will probably be more complicated especially if you are trying to create an experience like the Tag Galaxy and Cooliris. I haven't tried to build one of these myself, so I can't vouch for the ease (or difficulty) associated with designing one of these.

[sourced from PSFK and JeetBlog]

Micro-Interactions and Magnetic Prototypes

In this post I will touch upon two interesting but unrelated pieces of content that I came across earlier today. The first is a presentation about the importance of micro-interactions in today's Web 2.0 world, from Critical Mass' David Armano. The second is a short post regarding a new prototyping technique that involves use of ink jet-printed magnetic, from Adaptive Path's Alexa.

Micro-Interactions in a Web 2.0 World
I came across this presentation as I was surfing around slideshare.com, after having gone through Bill DeRuchey's presentations. David Armano's background as the VP of Experience Design at a Digital Agency comes across loud and clear from his focus on "brands" in this presentation [link to David's blog]. The one main point that I took away is that "your brand is the sum of all it's interactions" (captured in his own words).

I fully agree with his perspective though I would change his words slightly to "your brand is the sum of peoples' experience of all it's interactions." I know this sounds quite a bit clunkier, however, I think it is important to call out that peoples experience of the same interaction may vary widely based on their beliefs, values and mental models.

I also want to call out that this presentation includes a thoughtful, and in my view accurate, perspective regarding the impact that web 2.o has had in the way people interact with each other, communities, brands and society at large.

Magnets for Prototypes
In this short post from Adaptive Path, Alexa makes a strong case for the use of custom-made magnets for prototyping interfaces. Now-a-days magnetic sheets for ink jet printers are widely available on Amazon or your local Staples. So you can create magnets that represent each interface elements and/or widget and that can be easily manipulated on a magnetic board. Though it does not work for every project, Alexa claims that this technique has "expedited concept communication, prompted new ideas through playfulness, and equipped people (who often don’t like to draw) to express ideas quickly." Definitely worth a try.

Interaction Design Basics: Presentations from Bill DeRouchey

Since I kicked off my interaction and experience design curriculum a few months ago I've been following Bill DeRouchey's blog, which is aptly titled push.click.touch. Unfortunately, shortly after I started following his blog Bill stopped posting, his last contribution taking place on August 28th.

Earlier today I checked out his site to take a look at some of his older posts to find out if he had any older nuggets of wisdom to impart - this is in opposition to my usual practice of remaining on my side of an RSS reader. I was happy to find several presentations that Bill has developed for conferences on the topic of Interaction Design. Here is a quick overview of three presentations that I found very informative (if you are already an interaction design pro you probably won't find these very interesting. That said, they are great for novices like me).

In his presentation, Language of Interaction Design Bill provides an overview of basic interaction design concepts. In this presentaiton Bill makes a strong case regarding the fact that a language of interaction design already exists. By "language" Bill refers to the fact that people have already learned to attach specific meaning to colors, shapes, etc. Therefore, designers need to take these language into account when designing interactions. For example, designers should use green to signify a start button and red to signify a stop button.

Another interesting presentation created by Bill is entitled History of the Button. Here, Bill provides a high-level overview of how buttons evolved from late 1800's when Kodak first put a button on a camera to today when the button is a virtual area that is defined by the content on a computer screen - "clicking" a button has evolved to "touching" a surface. Soon the button will be the environment as we start seeing more gesture-based interfaces. To wrap up the presentation Bill reminds us how all of these "buttons" will need to be designed.

Book Summary: Where the Action Is - Embodied Itneraction - Chapter 5

Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction
By Paul Dourish
MIT Press, 2001

Chapter 5 – Foundations

In this chapter Dourish addresses the notions of “meaning” and "coupling," which are central concepts to our understanding of embodied interaction. In the realm of meaning, he explores the aspects of ontology, intersubjectivity, and intentionality. These aspects refer to the structure upon which meaning is created, the shared nature of meaning and the "directedness" of meaning. The concept of coupling on the other hand, refers to our ability to act on and through the world by manipulating the various aspects of meaning listed above.

After exploring these various notions, Dourish goes on to examine the two uses of the idea of embodied interaction that arises from this chapter (and book). The first use is as the basis for a design approach "that is oriented toward the way in which people interact with systems as a a fundamentally embodied phenomenon." The second use is as a tool to evaluate and identify issues with the design of existing interactive technologies.

Now let's delve deeper in the various aspects of meaning and the notion of coupling...

Meaning
Below I will provide an overview of each aspect of meaning that was explored by Dourish: ontology, intersubjectivity, and intentionality. Each of these aspects “plays a different role in embodied interaction, and each raises different set of issues for interactive system design.”

Ontology
Ontology provides the structure on which meaning is created. “It deals with how the world can be separated into a collection of entities whose meanings can be established, separated, and identified, and how these entities can be related to each other.” Designers often use the term ontology to refer to user’s conceptual models and to the internal representational structure of software.

One important challenge for designers is that there isn’t a single “ontology” that is shared by everyone. Therefore, designers need to be mindful of the existing “ontologies” that are held by users of their products.

Intersubjectivity
The second aspect of meaning explored by Dourish is intersubjectivity, which refers to how meaning can be shared. Unlike physical phenomena meaning is based on beliefs and intentions, which are not objective phenomena. That said, humans are still able to coordinate their behavior despite the absence of an objective reality. They do so by learning about each others beliefs and intentions.

There are two places where designers need to address the problem of intersubjectivity in their designs. First, designers communicate with users throught the system. Therefore, they need to establish a common ground of understanding regarding the constraints and affordances provided by the system so that users understand how a desing should be used.

Second, users communicate with other users through interactive systems. Therefore, designers need to create systems that are supportive of the ways in which people develop shared ways of using and working with systems. "What is important is not just what the system can do, but rather, what it really does do for people in the course of doing their work."

Intentionality
Intentionality refers to the referential nature of meaning - so what the heck does this mean? Essentially, the notion of intentionality proposes that meaning is a relationship between two separate entities. For example, in this simple sentence "I love my wife" the word "wife" features an intentional realtionship between with the lovely woman whom I married a little over three years ago.

The importance of intentionality to computing can be understood when you consider that computation is essentially an intentional phenomenon - the value of computation is that it refers to things. "If the key feature of the computational system is that it refers to elements in the world of human experience, then the key feature of interaction with computation is how we act through it to achieve effects in the world." This is true of our interaction with any system, not only computational systems - it is carried out to achieve an effect in the world.

Coupling
Coupling refers to the way in which we create and break down relationships between entities for the purpose of enabling and supporting our actions. This concept is crucial to understanding embodied interaction because it addresses the way in which meaning is made manifest from moment to moment as we act in the world.

To illustrate what this means lets go back to some concepts that were explored in previous chapters of this book. Specifically I want to focus on the notions of present-at-hand and ready-to-hand.

Let's say that you had a hammer in your hand. First you will likely conciously focus on the the way you are holding the hammer in your hand to ensure that it is oriented correctly and so on. At this moment the tool can be said to be present-at-hand. Once you are comfortable that you are holding the hammer properly you proceed with hammering a few nails. At this point your focus shifts to the action of hammering the nails and the hammer and your arm become a single unit - they are in fact "coupled." In this stage the hammer can be said to be ready-to-hand.

This example is clear but greatly simplified. Of course when we are acting in the world we tend to interact with many entities at time, rather than a single one. Therefore, the problem humans face is how to assemble a range of entities at any given moment to achieve whatever effect is desired.

Reading List: Interactions, November & December 2008

So this past week I received my first issue of Interaction magazine. This is one of the many publications that I've subscribed to as part of my curriculum on interaction and experience design. I was surprised by the heavy research bent of this magazine. I guess I've become used to the overly graphic nature of mainstream technology magazines such wired - after all, Interaction has much more of a professional bent (after all it is published by the Association for Computing Machinery).

Anyways, this month's edition had quite a few interesting pieces - below I've included a short paragraph regarding the most intersting ones. In all honesty I have not finished reading through this issue yet, so I may end up adding a few more articles to this list over the next week or so.

Designing Games: Why and How
This article focuses on the value of game design as tool to enable interaction designers to practice and improve their skills. Games are unique in that they can present a host of unsual interaction issues that have never been solved - hence they can challenge designers in new and unique ways. To help designers get started designing games, Sus Lundgren provides several different approaches that can be leverage by novices or experts. [link to article]

Signifiers, Not Affordances
I have just finished reading Donald Norman's bestselling classic design book: The Design of Everyday Things (also known as The Psychology of Every Day Things). In this book Don Norman investigates the concept of affordances that was originally introduced by J.J. Gibson. Affordances refers to the possibilities for actions that are provided by any given object. For example, a seat affords the possibility of sitting.

In this article Don explores how the concept of affordances is focused exclusively on the possibilities provided by objects. Therefore, it is rather limited when you consider that it does not take into account the possibilities for action that are provided by people, social groups, and cultures. These entities are not objects and cannot be said to offer affordances, though they do heavily influence the possibility for actions available to people who inhabit, or interact with, these social groups or cultures.

That is where the concept of "signifiers" comes in. "A Signifier is some sort of indicator, some signal in the physical or social world that can be interpreted meaningfully. Signifiers indicate critical information, even if the signifier itself is an accidental byproduct of the world." The concept of affordance is essentially a type of "signifier" - on that is specifically associated to an object. [link to article]

Some other articles from this issue that are on my reading list include: "Taken for Granted: The Infusion of the Mobiel Phone in Society," "User Experience for Ubiquitous Computing," and "Think Before You Link: Controlling Ubiquitous Availability."

Reading List: Wired, November 2008

Here is an overview regarding two interesting articles from this month's wired magazine. I've provided a link for only one of the articles as I could not find the other one online. Enjoy.

Mainstream Physical Computing Interfaces
In the Gadgets column, Steve Levy talks about three products that have succeeded in integrating the digital and physical world in a compelling and easy to use manner - the Wii, the iPhone and Guitar Hero. Though all of these gadgets were launched before 2008, it was only this year that they reached maturity, achieved more widespread adoption and "dominated the zeitgeist." I have to agree with Steve's assessment since these are three of my favorite gadgets. Link to column, The Melding of Physical and Digital Realms.

Open-Source Hardware
Clive Thompson's article titled "Build it. Share it. Profit. Can Open Source Hardware Work." about open-source hardware was very interesting. Now that production cost for hardware technology is now sufficiently cheap new companies with open-source hardware business models have begun to appear and flourish. Improvements in technology design have also made it easier for DYI gadget builders to create cool prototypes without a PhD in advanced robotics. I have been tinkering with the idea of building some home brewed gadgets for a while - this will be one of a step of my self-imposed curriculum.

Cool Design: Holographic Projection Interface

Check out this interesting portable computing concept that I found on PSFK, from a post titled Augmented Reality Using Holographic Projection. This portable interaface is known as Ringo and was designed by Ivan Tihienko. It enables users to interact with the computer using their hands and feet. It is based on holographic projections; the video below illustrates several potential capabilities including messaging, GPS and a cool two-player game of air hockey.

The concept is very cool, I predict that this technology could revolutionize the way we interact with computers (rather obvious prediction, I know). It would add a physical dimension to the interface that will afford many new interaction possibilities at home or on the go. In public environments this type of interface will be leveraged primarily for multi-user applications. Many people would feel uncomfortable flapping their arms in the air in public spaces in order to write a message or carry out other similar interactions. However, in more private places users will likely engage in wider variety of both single and multi-user interactions.

In the realm of mobile devices this technology could be marketed as a task-specific gadget, such as a gaming system; it could also be included as a secondary interface on mobile phones/PDAs (I want one on my phone). This interface is not appropriate as a primary interface on mobile phones/PDAs because the privacy provided via traditional interfaces is more appropriate for many type of applications. For example, you don't want people to be able to read your emails, or SMS conversations; you probably don't want them to always know who you are calling as well.

Interface for Storytelling: Jonathan Harris

I came across Jonathan Harris in his Pop!Cast from the Pop!Tech conference. In this podcast, which is featured below, Jonathan shares his passion for creating storytelling platforms. These "platforms" are innovative interactive interfaces that enable the "listener" to engage in the story on multiple different levels. The two of these platforms that I have explored offer different approaches to storytelling that are reflective of the different nature of the content itself. They are unlike the more common interactive storytelling approaches embodied by YouTube's annotation feature.

The Whale Hunt (link to site)
The Whale Hunt storytelling platform was developed to document the nine days that Jonathan spent living with an Inupiat Eskimo family in North West Alaska. This voyage was captured in thousands of photographs, approximately one photograph was taken every five seconds. The design of the website enables users to interact with the story in many interesting ways, supported by the story's content and medium.

Users are able to: see a graphical representation of the excitement level felt by Jonathan throughout the timeline of the story; select sections of the story based on the context (village or artict ocean), content (whale hunting, traveling), and color of the picture; view substories related to other "cast" members. Check out how Jonathan describes his own interface, where he provides a brief overview of the challenges he faced.

We Feel Fine (link to site)
The We Feel Fine storytelling platform differs considerably from the Whale Hunt. This difference is driven in large part by the type of content featured on each site. Whereas the Whale Hunt features content that is extremely detailed and specifically created for the purpose of the storytelling site, the content on We Feel Fine is harvested from blogs across the world. Each sentence is selected because it contains the world "feel".

These snippets of copy are analyzed to capture the "feeling" being expressed and are then compiled with data regarding each blogger's gender and age, and local weather information. Finally they are made available via a truly unique interface, here is a quote from the description of the interface by Jonathan, and co-creator Sep Kamvar: "The interface to this data is a self-organizing particle system, where each particle represents a single feeling posted by a single individual." (check out the full description here.)

Jonathan Harris - Pop!Cast

Experience Design: Nike and Runners

Much has been written about Nike's groundbreaking programs for Basketball fans (aka "ballers") and Runners. Nike is one of the few brands that understands they are in the business of enabling people to become better runners or basketball players, as opposed to selling sports gear. Nike leverages many online and offline programs to deliver on this promise.

I have been familiar with Nike's online programs for runners for a while now - I gave my father an iPod with a Nike+ attachment a few years back. Nike+ is one of the coolest web supported applications that has been designed in the past years. However, it is only one part of much larger initiative to engage runners. Two interesting characteristic that bind together all of Nike's efforts are: their attempt to create a community around this individual sport; their ability to integrate the Nike brand in to these communities in way that is positive and adds value to the community. To illustrate this point I will highlight two initiative of which I recently became aware - I do want to point out that these initiative are new to me, but they were actually launched several years ago. The first initiative is Nike's Run NYC community; the second is Nike's Runner Stations.

Building Communities of Runners
Nike supports communities of runners in 15 cities throughout the United States. For each of these communities, Nike keeps a regularly updated blog that provides updates regarding past and future events that range from group runs and training sessions to a speaker series. Here is a link to their NYC runners blog, here is a direct link to their event calendar for October. Nike also prints flyers that included information regarding training runs and running paths available in these various cities (check out the red card at the top of this listing and the flyer to the left of this paragraph).

These communities provide Nike with the ability to build stronger relationships with runners founded on a common passion for the sport. Nike is not only selling shoes to the participants of these communities, but rather helping them become better runners. They are selling a transformation rather than a product or experience.

These communities also enable Nike to better understand the needs, wants and attitudes of runners - insights that can be leveraged in the development of new products or marketing and relationship programs.

Nike's Runner's Stations
I came across a Nike Runner's Station in Hudson River Park in Tribeca. This station, which is funded by Nike, provides runners with the opportunity to try Nike shoes and to get information regarding Nike's Run NYC events (e.g. training runs, etc). Drinks and snacks are also sold at this station, with all proceeds going to the Hudson River Park.

The runner's stations provide Nike with the opportunity to engage runners in their place of practice. Just the fact that Nike is present in this popular running spot gives them some level of credibility with this specific local community of runners. They have also done a good job at maximizing the value of their presence by providing runners with the opportunity to try out (as opposed to try on) Nike running shoes. The fact that Nike contributes all profits from the station to the Hudson River Park is another way that they show support for the local running community - essentially they are helping to support the local communities place of practice.

The Death of Rollovers

I just realized today how rollovers don't work on touchscreen displays - I know this probably seems obvious to those with experience designing applications for touchscreen displays. I had this realization when I was visiting the Guggenheim website on an iPhone. The home page for the Guggenheim organization features a pictures of their museums and the names of the city appear only on rollover. Therefore, I was only able to see the name of the city where a museum was located only when I clicked on the picture of that specific museum. As touchscreen displays continue to become more commonly available, designers will not be able to rely on rollovers to display useful information about the behavior of a button.

Cool Design: Muji Chronotebook

Check out the design of this day planner from the Japanese brand Muji - the Chronotebook. I came across this cool book on PSFK earlier today (they originally picked it up from jack cheng's blog). The thing that struck me about the design of this day planner is that it reminded me about how we often get so used to existing solutions that we become blinded to other perspectives or approaches to the same problem. I had become so accustomed to the standard day planners that I almost took it for granted the possibility of coming up with a different (and in my mind) more effective approach.

I have purchased many day planners throughout my life. Sad to say that none of them survived; nor were they actually put in to use for that matter. Standard day planners have always seemed overly structured to me. Their design allows for no flexibility - if you have a bunch of short meetings between 11 and 12, good luck trying to fit it into a standard day planner. I personally like the freedom to be more creative with the way you plan your day - on the chronotebook you can easily add personal touches, such as graphics and embelishments, to help you stay on top of all your commitments, or for a little extra self-expression.

With this new notebook, Muji once agains proves that they can still deliver innovative and simple design solutions that are practical and emotionally engaging. I haven't wanted a new day planner in years.

Book Summary: Where the Action Is - The Foundations of Embodied Interaction - Chapter 4

Where the Action Is; The Foundations of Embodied Interaction
By Paul Dourish
MIT Press, 2001

Chapter 4 – Being in the World: Embodied Interaction

Dourish contends that embodiment is an attribute of how we experience physical and social reality. In turn, it is also “a unifying principle for tangible and social computing.” In this chapter he defines the notion of embodiment (and embodied interactions) by exploring the emergence of this concept.

The Quick Definition of Embodiment:
In this chapter Dourish evolves the definition of embodiment from “embodied phenomena are those that occur in space and time” to “embodiment is the property of our engagement with the world that allows us to make it meaningful.” He also shares a definition for embodied interaction: “[it] is the creation, manipulation and sharing of meaning through an engaged interaction with artifacts.”

In the book you only get to these last two definitions at the end of the chapter, at which point it makes more sense. So if you are confused just read on about the theories underlying this definition.

Emergence of the Concept of Embodiment:
Dourish’s exploration into the emergence of the concept of embodiment focuses mostly on thinkers from the phenomenological tradition, a school of philosophy in which I am personally interested. The perspectives that he highlights share three commonalities in their approach:

1. The concept of embodiment plays a central role in all perspectives. Remember that our definition of embodiment is “a property of our engagement with the world that allows us to make it meaningful.” This definition expands beyond the notion of embodiment as a physical property to encompass non-physical properties that impact our experience of being-in-the-world.
2. Practice plays a central role in all perspectives. By practice, Dourish refers to actions carried out in the world to accomplish “practical goal[s].” Action in the world is considered fundamental to our understanding the world and our relationship with it.
3. All perspectives consider embodied practical action as a source of meaning. Embodiment is a source for intentionality rather than the object of it.

The Evolution of Phenomenology:
Phenomenology is relevant to understanding Dourish’s concept of embodied interaction because it is a school of thought that focuses on “ the behavior of embodied actors going about their business in the world.” It rejects abstract and formalized reasoning in favor of the world of everyday experience. To phenomenologists, meaning is found in the way the world reveals itself to us as being available for our actions, and in the way in which the world acts upon us - in both its physical and social manifestations.

Edmund Husserl is considered the father of phenomenology. The main aim of his investigations was to understand the relationship between objects of intentionality and our consciousness of those objects - in other words, the relationships between the objects of meaning and our experience of those objects. Intentionality is an important concept in phenomenology. I will not go into detail about this concept here because it is explored in detail in the next chapter of the book.

To properly analyze the relationship between these two notions, phenomenologists need to get passed the “natural attitude” under which humans operate that assumes the existence of “perceived objects” or meaning based solely on the perception. Life-world (lebenswelt) is a concept that Husserl introduced to refer to the everyday, mundane world of common background understandings that give rise to the “natural attitude” and provide a context for everyday experiences.

Martin Heidegger was a one of Husserl’s students. He broadened the focus of investigation from purely mental and cognitive concerns to encompass physical considerations, breaking away from Husserl’s perspective that separated mind and body, to embrace a wholistic perspective focused on being. Heidegger believed that first you need “to be in order to think.”

Based on Heidegger’s perspective, the meaningfulness of everyday experience arises from the way we exist in the world rather than from one’s mind – the experience of being cannot be separated from the world in which it occurs. He believed that the way we encounter the world is practical. We encounter it as a place in which we act and as a consequence intentionality (or meaning creation) is a practical affair.

Another important perspective that Heidegger introduced is that the world is not simply an object of our action but also as a medium through which we act. He distinguishes two ways in which we encounter the world: “ready-at-hand” and “present-to-hand.” Present-at-hand refers to when we encounter the world as an object of our action. An example of a ready-at-hand encounter is when we pick up a hammer and are conscious of the way we are holding it in our hand. Ready-to-hand refers to when we encounter the world as a medium through which we act. For example, when we are using a hammer but our consciousness is focused on a task such as hammering a nail

Here is a nice quote from Dourish about Heidegger’s impact on phenomenological thinking: “Essentially, Heidegger transformed the problem of phenomenology from an epistemological question, a question about knowledge, to an ontological question, a question about forms and categories of existence.”

Alfred Schutz extended phenomenology “beyond the individual to encompass the social world.” His main contribution focused on the issue of intersubjectivity. This concept refers to our “intersubjective understandings of the world and of our actions [with]in it.” Intersubjectivity ultimately provides the foundation from which social action emerges and from which social order is constituted.

Schutz’s rejected the traditional sociological perspective, which viewed intersubjectivity as a universal law. To him, intersubjectivity is a phenomena that emerges out of our everyday “mundane” experience - it is a problem that is “routinely solved by social actors in the course of their action and interaction. Social actors are, in effect, practical sociologists, solving the problems of sociology for themselves everyday.” One last important point is that this world of everyday “mundane” experience is the life-world described by Husserl.

Maurice Merlau-Ponty is the phenomenologist that placed the greatest emphasis on the concept of embodiment. The main focus of his investigation was the role that the body played in unifying the duality of mind/body, and subject/object. Embodiment had three different meanings according to Merlau-Ponty.

“The first is the physical embodiment of a human subject, with legs arms, and of certain size and shape; the second is the set of bodily skills and situational responses that we have developed; and the third is the cultural “skills,” abilities, and understanding that we responsively gain from the cultural world in which we are embedded. Each of these aspects, simultaneously, contributes to and conditions the action of the individual, both in terms of how they understand their own (the ‘phenomenological body’) and how it is understood by others (the ‘objective body’).”

Beyond Phenomenology
In this chapter, Dourish also introduces other modern theorists who are not part of the phenomenologist school but who have focused on the physical and social aspects of embodiment.

Being in the Physical World – J.J. Gibson is a proponent of ecological psychology, a branch of psychology that focuses on “knowledge in the world” as opposed to “knowledge in the head.” He introduced the now common concept of affordance, which “is a property of the environment [or an artifact] that affords action to appropriately equipped organisms.” This concept has heavily infiltrated the world of HCI, and it reached the general consciousness via Donald Norman’s book “The Psychology of Everyday Things.”

Being in the Social World – Lucy Suchman drew extensively from Garfinkel’s ethonomethodological perspective, which in essence “claims that everyday social practice creates and sustains the social world by rendering it publicly available and intelligible. Members’ methods for making action accountable are means through which the phenomenon of objective social reality is achieved.” (go back to the chapter 3 summary for more on ethnomethodology). Suchman demonstrated how the regimented models that are embodied in most interactive technology do not properly support the contextual and practical means by which human action is organized.

Language Games and the Meaning of Language - Ludwig Wittgenstein was a philosopher who studied language. He posited that meaning in language does not arise from words themselves but is rather embedded in the practice of language. He saw language as a form of action, rather than a system of symbols with objective meanings. To emphasize his perspective he developed the notion of “language games” that refer to “socially shared linguistic practices ‘consisting of language and the actions into which it is woven.’”

Wrap-up
The goal of this rather long post is to help you understand Dourish’s definition of embodied interaction, with which I began this summary: “[it] is the creation, manipulation and sharing of meaning through an engaged interaction with artifacts.” I hope I have succeeded in doing so, if not, leave a comment and we’ll see if I can help shed any more light on the subject.

Taking GPS Games to the Next Level

Earlier today on PSFK I came across a posting from Hamburg about an awesome GPS-based game showcased in this year's Ars Electronica Festival. There are several cool thing about this game: it offers an immersive multiplayer experience that is based on the concept of a "hungry pack of wolves chasing after a sheep herd"; to succeed players have to react to real- and virtual-world obstacles on their pursuit; to impact the game players can also place real objects that have virtual properties; lastly, it enables "visitors" to keep track of the game's progress on a real-time map that keep track of the location of the wolves and sheep (players). Check out the video on the original posting on PSFK.

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.

Wii Hacks from Johnny Lee

I always thought the Wii was pretty cool, but now I understand the true potential of what you can do with the Wii's technology - if you have the courage and time to tinker with it. Johnny Lee is a researcher who became a star on YouTube for his ability to hack the Wii remote to create a low-cost multi-touch whiteboards and and head tracking device for desktop visual reality (VR) displays (check out the video below). Another video from Johnny that is not nearly as popular but more informative, is Johnny's talk at Ted ealier this year.

Multi-Touch Whiteboard Video from YouTube


Video of Johnny Lee's Talk from Ted


If you have the time and the motivation, check out Johnny's site where you can access the how-to instructions and software required to re-create these awesome gadgets for your personal use.

Multi-Touch Interfaces From IDEO and Others

I recently came across a few posts on the IDEO Lab blog about multi-touch computing. I am a huge fan of touch computing. My experiences with these types of interfaces are limited to the iPhone, the SmartBoard from my wife's classroom, and random retail and public instalations that use Microsoft's Surface or other technologies.

I had never really thought much about the collaborative potential of large scale multi-touch interfaces. It seems obvious now, after reading about the IDEO Lab's experiments. Here is a great quote from one of their blog postings about the collaborative nature of multi-touch systems: "multi-touch, particularly on large displays, assumes multiple inputs at the same time. Multiple fingers, yes, or multiple hands from multiple people. In other words, it’s a system designed for “us” instead of for “me” — for collaboration instead of heads-down work."

Here are three videos that show the potential of multi-touch systems in action. The first video covers a talk from Jeff Han at TED in 2006. In this talk he introduces his Perceptive Pixel multi-touch display and makes the case for basing future computer interfaces on this type of technology. The second video documents a "Home-Brew" project from IDEO, check out this story about how they put this together. The third video shows a prototype from Perceptive Pixel.


Jeff Han's Talk at Ted




IDEO's Multi-Touch Project




Perceptive Pixel's Multi-Touch Project

Book Summary: Where the Action Is - The Foundations of Embodied Interaction (chapter 3)

Where the Action Is; The Foundations of Embodied Interaction
By Paul Dourish
MIT Press, 2001

Chapter 3 - Social Computing

In this chapter, Dourish explores the ways in which sociological concepts and methods are increasingly being leveraged in the design, development and evaluation of interactive systems. Social computing is defined as the application of sociological understanding to the design of interactive systems. Leveraging a sociological approach to designing interactive systems makes sense because of the context in which computation takes place: first, the work that computation does and the ways we put computation to use are embedded in a fabric of relationships between people, institutions and practices; second, the system mediates a "social" interaction between the designer and the user. This communication is founded on a background of common understandings.

Dourish focuses on two social computing approaches - Technomethodology, and the Locales Framework. These approaches share three common characteristics (in the author's own words):

1. "They are concerned with the details of the organization of social conduct rather than broad social trends.
2. "They are primarily oriented toward real activities and experiences rather than abstractions or models.
3. "They all adopt an anthropological and ethnographical perspective on collecting, interpreting, and using field materials."
   

Before delving into these two social computing paradigms I will provide an overview of several concepts that provide a foundation for these approaches (Ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Abstraction, Space, and Place). Note that the concept definitions provided by Dourish are often more specific than the general definition to which the terms usually refer. I'll do my best to be brief and clear.

Ethnography: ethonography places an emphasis on the detailed understanding of culture through intensive, long-term involvement. Ethnographers explore not only what the members of a culture do, but also what they experience in doing it. In order to achieve this they attempt to avoid their preconceptions to understand and represent the culture from a member's point of view.

The Chicago School introduced an ethnographic approach to studying working practice in the 1950's. This led to the adoption of these types of fieldwork-oriented approaches in Human-Computer Interaction to support the discovery of system requirements and the evaluation of systems in use. Ethnographic approaches focuses on "work practice" rather than "work process." Work process refers to the standardized procedures that mandate how work must be carried out; Work practice refers to the informal practices that people develop to make processes work in the face of everyday contingencies. Practice is always dynamic, whereas processes are static.

An ethnographic approach enables designers to understand how a system can work in the context where it will be put to use, and whether a system is working effectively as embodied by a group of people using the system to do real work in a real setting. Dourish shares two examples that illustrate these benefits, the ethnography of an Air Traffic Control Center and that of a Print Shop (I won't go into details regarding either of them here).

Ethnomethodology: Ethnomethodology focuses on how commonsense methods that people use to manage and organize their every day behavior create orderly social conduct. This approach is in distinct contrast to traditional approaches to sociology that leveraged abstract theories to account for our social reality. The focus of ethnomethodology is investigating the commonsense understandings - these are described as "what everyone knows that everyone knows". These are the understandings by which people make sense of the world and make it available for their actions and activities.

The impact Ethnomethodology had on the world of sociology was to focus the attention on detailed investigation of practice to find within it evidence for the ways that orderly social conduct is achieved. In other words, this concentrates "on the experiences of everyday life rather than on abstract reasoning." Though ethnomethodology is a small strand within sociology, it has had great impact on Human-Computer Interaction (and interaction design).

The concept of "accountability" is central to this school of thought. Accountability refers to the "observable and reportable" nature of actions within a language community (language community refers to any group that shares commonly held understandings - i.e. of doctors, musicians or church-goers). In other words, this means that members within a community can make sense of the action of other members based on the context where the action arises. The concept of accountability is based on the reciprocal relationship between action and understanding - the methods we use for engaging in action are the same methods used for understanding the actions of others.

Abstraction: In Dourish's own words "where abstraction is the gloss that describes how something can be used and what it will do, the implementation is the part under the covers that describes how it will work." Abstraction provides the basis for software systems. On the other hand abstraction also hide the information about how a system is doing what it does (i.e. how the perceived actions are organized). According to the notion of accountability, this information is key to enabling others to understand the actions.

Space & Place: The concept of space serves as a central model and metaphor for our thinking and language. Spatial metaphors are common because they are based on a feature of our physical world that is shared by all human beings. The notion of space is primarily concerned with physical, or metaphorically physical, properties. On the other hand, the concept of place is concerned with social properties.

So while space refers to the configuration of people and artifacts within a setting, place refers to the behavioral framework for a setting that is conveyed by common social understandings.

Technomethodology

This term was developed by Dourish to describe a design perspective that focuses on creating a deeper relationship between ethnomethodology and technological design. It is characterized by the following criteria:

1. "It attempts to draw not simply on a set of observations of a specific working setting, but rather on ethnomethodology's fundamental insights about the organization of action as being a moment-to-moment, naturally occurring, improvisational response to practice problems.
2. "It attempts to relate these understanding not simply to the design of specific interactive system aimed at a specific setting, but rather, at the basic, fundamental principles upon which software systems are developed-ideas such as abstraction, function, substitution, identity, and representation."

The main challenge that Dourish address in regards to technnomethodology is how to reconcile the concepts of abstraction and accountability. To overcome this hurdle, a system needs to exhibit three primary features:

1. The account of the system's behavior is connected to the actual behavior that it describes.
2. The account of the system's behavior emerges from the action itself, it is not as a commentary about the action.
3. The account must be based on the current specific behavior of the system, in its current configuration, carrying this specific task.

Locales Framework

The notion of locale is captured in the concept of place. The Locale's Framework was developed to provide system designers with a practical understanding of the social organization of activity that can be leveraged to impact their designs. This framework is based on five components, called aspects:

1. Foundations: This includes the social world being addressed (community that shares a common action or goal and ability to communicate to establish a collective orientation), the sites (spaces) and means (furnishings) that make up the locale (place).
2. Civic Structure: This is focused on how the local relates to other locales. "In the same way that meaning of action is constituted by other actions that come before and after them, so, too, can locales only be understood in relation to others."
3. Individual Views: This addresses the different perspectives, concerns, roles, and forms of participation provided by the individuals who inhabit the locale.
4. Interaction Trajectories: This refers to the emergence of a specific course of actions evolved through time and involving multiple actors (individuals). This aspect situates actions within particular histories, and, from a broader perspective, creates the notion of the collective action of social worlds.
5. Multuality: This is a tough one to explain, so I'll plagiarize: "aspect refers to the ways in which sites and means are made manifest to members of a social world, and the way in which those members and their actions are made manifest to others through the sites and means."