Keep It Simple!

David Pogue says "Simplicity Sells"

David Pogue is a New York Times columnist who writes about technology. Watch the video, which although from 2006, still has great relevance for anyone who is concerned about interface design. He gives good and bad examples as he empathizes with the user. It's also pretty funny!

 

So don't forget to Keep It Simple!

How Do We Manage?

The organizational level of Vicente's human-tech ladder is, I think, pure common sense! Any dysfunctional aspects between people and particular hard and soft technologies at the lower levels of physical, psychological, and team, should be identified, and rectified whenever possible. An effective and respected feedback system should be utilized at every level, but especially when those interactions impact health and safety issues.

The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: a failure in decision support system and human factors management, is a web page detailing the various levels of missteps and mismatches at every level of Vicente's Human-Tech ladder. This is documented by Jeff Forest at Metropolitan State College.

This holds particular import for me as I remember the incident so well. In fact, I was watching this live on the television and had insisted my young daughters watch with me as it was such a momentous occasion: a teacher was to teach her elementary students from space, how cool was that? Well, as it turned out, my children and Christa McAuliffe's students learned a very different lesson--technology can fail!

What I didn't understand at the time was how complex this failure was. It wasn't purely that the hardware had broken for some reason, but that many levels of communication and trust had also broken. I was shocked to learn that, for example, "suggestions made by any group member that would ultimately support a scheduled launch were met with positive support by the group. Any suggestion that would lead to a delay was rejected by the group." Jeff Forest 

As Vicente explains, for the consideration of expediency, the burden of proof had shifted, from reassuring that everything was safe to launch to having to prove that it wasn't. Safety was being compromised at this point anyway! Disincentives to speaking against the popular view are illustrated by a manager simply stating, "I'm appalled, when do you want us to launch, Thiokol, in April?" (Vicente, p. 187)

So how do we distinguish organizational issues from individual or group ones? Vicente points out that at this complex and overarching level we have to take a hard, critical look at "incentives, disincentives, staffing levels, management structures, information flow across teams, and organizational cultures." (p. 188) Each of these areas can have a positive or negative impact on the human factor, be it at the physical, psychological, and/or team focus, Hence, effective management cannot distance itself from context specific technical skills and knowledge. In other words, there has to be a realistic and insightful connection that links all 'steps' of of the human-tech ladder or human disasters such as the above will continue to occur. As Vicente notes, "The goal is to find out what's to blame, not who's to blame." (p. 201)

In a roundabout way, success at this level is all about relationship building and respect for human nature, which creates a community that allows and encourages people to deal honestly and forthrightly with any problems or barriers in using micro/macro hard/soft technologies. Denouncing a culture of "blame and shame" (p. 214) requires all of us to participate: it is too easy to be caught up in a similar pattern of knee jerk assumptions without considering any underlying factors. So, in a sense, we all play many roles in a variety of cultures as part of living and working in the world. By association then, we are all implicated in how we view 'Management" roles, duties, and responsibilities: each of us has to ensure the "flow" of information is happening and is a normal state of affairs.

As is say, How Do We Manage?

Gooooooo Team!

Teamwork Created in Tag Galaxy

 {Click link and type in 'Teamwork.' Tag Galaxy will load images. 

Click on the Sun and watch! Rotate and click on images as you travel around the sun!}

 Vicente's next step on the Human-Tech ladder is teamwork, hence the image above! I agree that as you bring more individuals into any relationship, for whatever reason, the connectivity and interaction between and among the participants becomes complex and somewhat unpredictable. Each, as Vicente says, brings their physical and psychological make-up to this new set up, which certainly impacts the complex wholeness of the group. Communication is inevitably a concern. Even for our project groups this has been a complicating factor that we have all had to maneuver around or find innovative ways to deal with it! Finding a time that all can get together, be it face-to-face or using Skype, for example, has been challenging. it has helped enormously to use a communal wiki and email.

You Turned On Me by Sammie

Then we have the delicate task of trying to assign roles within the group, although this seems to improve the more individuals work together. After all, people have to become accustomed to the individual nuances of each others ways of looking and reacting to the world! But who takes charge? Who delegates tasks? How do you share responsibility and accountability? How do you allow for different viewpoints and approaches? How, in other words, to you become a viable unit?

As Vicente recognizes, these barriers to effective team work have to be overcome for successful design both of hard and soft technologies. He states, "Designers must create a system that is tailored to the characteristics and needs of the team as a distinct entity in its own right." (p. 156)

I was astounded at how this inattention to designing technological systems to fit people working together as a team played out in the Florida Everglades Flight 401 crash. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic! Here, the "dysfunctional team" failed to attend to leadership and to designation of roles-especially when faced with an emerging situation. Sadly, I am  too often of in situations like this, although thankfully, the consequences are not of such enormity!

It Came To Rest by BrutalSF

For example, a minor household accident and EVERYONE tries to attend to the same tasks!
All race for the brush and shovel, say, to sweep up broken glass, and, voila, more accidents happen due to the bustle and hassle! It's inevitable it seems!

People, in general, are not prepared or trained to work in teams. In many situations this would seem to be imperative, especially when it comes to issues of safety.
Here is where the magic of simulation technology can be used to great effect. 

Learning how each plays an important and essential role for the aggregate was paramount in the videos below!

Awesome Teamwork

 

Not so Awesome Teamwork!

  

Gooooooo Team!

Make It and Say It Like It's Meant to Be!

 Jeannette's Wallwisher for Minding the Mind
Each image was retrieved through FlikrStorm  
using the non-commercial and no-derivatives search function. 

The Wallwisher above can be scrolled both ways in order to read all of the postings. Click on the link below the frame if you prefer to see the full wall and/or if you wish to add your own thoughts to the wall! Please feel free to add your ideas!

I created this wall of posted sticky notes as I read though Vicente's chapters 4 and 5 titled, Minding the Mind I: Everyday Psychology (pp. 89 - 110) and Minding the Mind II: Safety-Critical Psychology (pp. 111 - 153).  This was a way for me to pick out and note the questions which product designers should think about that relate to those Human-Tech psychological factors which impact the relationship between a technology and its user. In other words, the second level of Vicente's Human-Tech ladder deals with the human mind and how it attempts to make sense of the world: designers should pay heed to the limitations as well as strengths of people's mental processes. A major consideration during design and development of a product should be to create something that has a good fit with the humans who will use it - physically and psychologically. The technology should embody respect toward the intended users both in catering to human limitations and to human capabilities. In addition, guides for use should clarify not obfuscate any functions and processes. 

Here is a very different, and amusing, view of the way everyday psychology can effect your relationship with various products. Rory Sutherland demonstrates how advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself.

 Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons from an Ad Man

In other words, Make It and Say It Like It's Meant to Be!

Keeping It Real: Communications, Connections, Considerarion.

Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson: Animate by The Cognitive Media

The above Animate talk was created with Riverhead Books to promote and celebrate the publication of Steven Johnson's latest book, Where Good Ideas Come From.

Steven Johnson maps out the story of how humanity generates ideas and innovations and concludes that,
"individuals have better ideas if they're connected to rich, diverse networks of other individuals. If you put yourself in an environment with lots of different perspectives, you yourself are going to have better, sharper, more original ideas. It's not that the network is smart. It's that you are smarter because you're connected to the network."  (From Salon Interview)

Accepting that modern technologies allows for multi-tasking lifestyles and constant distractions he also posits that these same technologies allow for increased connectivity and are, in themselves, drivers for creative ideas, innovation, and invention. As he says, "Chance favours the connected mind." So, like Norman, Steven Johnson believes there are many positives that we enjoy due to our increased ability to interact no matter where we live or work. As Norman says, "throughout the last one hundred years, as technologies have changed, the importance of communication has remained high on the list of essentials." (p. 148) Obviously, for Steven Johnson, it seems that only good things can come from an ever increasing variety of ways to communicate and connect, along with technologies that reduce barriers for sharing ideas, 'hunches,' and blossoming synergy.

Tele by Rebecca Anne

I agree with Norman that in the past "people who separated physically would often separate socially and emotionally as well." (P. 149) When my family first emigrated to Canada the cost of a telephone call to England was prohibitive and therefore the normal mode of communication to keep in touch with our physically distant family was by writing letters and then going to the post office to mail them. Over time this became tedious and did nothing to retain a sense of close family ties, although we tried. Today, I communicate with our daughter, Collette, who lives in Ottawa, through video chat - at no cost! We are able to reduce that 'social and emotional' distance by not only talking with, but seeing each other. It is indeed a wonderful thing!  We are even in the process of setting up a free Skype account for my parents so that they too can talk and see their other daughter and related family who are still far away in England.  To keep in touch with friends within the city of Liverpool (where I was born) used to cost quite a lot per call. Now, our daughter Corrina calls me every day for a quick chat, and we don't have to consider the expense! Again, how wonderful! I can attest to the comment, "The ability to keep in touch throughout the day maintains a relationship, whether it be business or social." (Norman p. 151) And my family has yet to embrace texting - although iChat is becoming popular for us! 

Communication Age by Dom Dada

However, I hope that I never forget "that one person's 'keeping in touch' is another person's interruption." (Norman p. 153) Too often I have been enjoying a  face-to-face conversation with someone, trusting that they too are amenable to the chat, only to find that suddenly your special time together has been usurped by the ever needy cellphone: it doesn't seem to matter who is on the other end! Or else, you are watching a movie or theater production and suddenly someone's needy communication tool wants attention. We have all witnessed this I know. I agree that "the person engaged in the cell phone conversation feels emotionally satisfied, while the other feels ignored and distanced, emotionally upset." (p.153)


A new phenomena I have experienced is what I will call the "In group" and "Out group" SmartPhone culture. It seems that those with this type of technology are, as a group, taken with comparing, sharing, and playing with the technology: almost individually participating in  a group experience, if you will. The participants appear unaware of others within the social set that do not have such products - a similar diemma  to the telephone snafus mentioned above. 

Carphone by Sweens308

As for distracted in the car! 

As Norman emphasizes, "your visceral and behavioral levels of processing still function well, but not the reflective, the home of planning and anticipating." (p. 155) I have witnessed this too often on roads such as the high speed Deerfoot Trail, here in  Calgary. It seems that people cannot afford to 'waste' time: sitting and 'just' driving appear to be occasions for catching up on those conversations that one can't fit into 'busier' and 'more productive' times of the day. I know because I have participated in this dangerous behavior. Now I am trying hard to keep these words of Norman's in my head as I drive, " Continual switching of attention is normally a virtue, especially in the world of social interaction. In the mechanical world, it can be a peril." (p. 156)


With all of this mind, we shouldn't forget to Keep It Real!

More Fun Thoughts

Singing FIngers from MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten

Here, designers Eric Rosenbaum and Jay Silver at MIT have created a downloadable app. for the iPad and iPhone that is just pure fun and allows people to create soundscapes even if they have no particular musical ability! I was reminded of Donald Norman's response when he saw the "Juicy Salif" for the first time - I too said, "Wow, I want it." This was my simple visceral response to the video's promise! In this case, it doesn't have to have a utilitarian aspect to it. However, in the creators' words,

"We see Singing Fingers as a step toward the next big cultural transformation, putting all the power of recording, playing back, and remixing, literally at the tip of the finger for the most improvisational, fluid, sound interface we could come up with. Singing Fingers lowers the floor to let children play with sound as if it was finger paint, and raises the roof by letting advanced DJs break out of the grooves of the records into a world where sounds take any shape you give them and your fingers are like the needles that play the sounds back, with as fine control as your hand will allow." 

Now, as well as playing music wherever we go, whenever we want, for as long as we want, we can create our own music or sound compositions while "Music acts as a subtle, subconscious enhancer of our emotional state throughout the day." (Norman p. 119)

At the other end of the fun and games spectrum are, as Norman points out, those video games and/or simulations that embed very realistic and involved story lines that call for a more reflective and cognitive interaction beyond and/or inclusive of the visceral, fun component. I was strongly reminded of this when doing research for my group's project design: I came across a particular use of the virtual reality 'game,' Second Life, in that the user had multiple reasons for 'playing.' After viewing the video below, I got a very different perspective on the use of such environments, whether thought of as a fun game or as a possible way to interact with the world.

"Alice Krueger has severe multiple sclerosis and is unable to walk without the use of crutches. She rarely leaves her home except for trips to see her doctor. In the virtual world of Second Life she leads a radically different existence. Here, she is the avatar Gentle Heron, the co-founder of the Heron Sanctuary - a self-described "support community" for others facing similar situations. In this clip she takes us on a eye-opening tour of her world." 

Health Care Blog

  A Second Chance with Second Life

"This clip was was featured at the Health 2.0 conference on 

Web 2.0 technologies in healthcare on March 3-4 2008 in San Diego,"

As Dr. Stuart Brown writes in his book Play,

"For humans, creating such simulations of life may be play's most valuable benefit....we can imagine and experience situations we have never encountered before and learn from them. We can create possibilities that have never existed...can learn lessons and skills without being directly at risk." (p. 34)

For me this is very poignant statement when considering Alice and her virtual friends. Here is where play moves well beyond pure fun whilst retaining its essence. Essentially then, adding fun and motivational elements to a product is actually a serious business with many unforeseeable, but hopefully positive, applications for a user!

However, I do have apprehensions around this blurring of barriers between the real and the virtual, or of distinguishing concepts that differ  'playing' and 'actualizing,' despite such positive and heartening examples that can be found. As Norman writes, "The artificial may cease to be distinguishable from the real." (p. 133) For me this portends unexpected, unforeseen, unpredictable, and unimagined 'as yet' problems in the future.

Hmm, "More Fun Thoughts" indeed!

The Creative Connection

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms Sir Ken Robinson

"This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. "

How does the above connect to User-Centered design? Sir Ken Robinson laments how the arts have been undervalued in society, particularly in regards to schooling in the western cultures of the world. This speaks to me as one who has always found pleasure and connection to the world through music, drama, and dance. In fact, I have  always taught within and with the Arts during my whole teaching career thus far! I have followed the writings and presentations of Sir Ken for some time now and would suggest that he would have much to talk about with Norman and Vicente in the realm of how we interact and react to technology in society. Although this movie is intended to speak to the education establishment and its need to embrace broader concepts about what it means to be brilliant, I have included it here, in particular, as a reminder of the importance of creative and divergent thinking to aspects of design and development of technological products.


Norman states, 
"There is a fundamental conflict between the preferences of the popular audience and the desires of the intellectual and artistic community. The case is most easily made with respect to movies, but also applies to all design as well as to serious music, art, literature, drama, and television." (p. 96) 

Similar to making movies, designing a product is complex and involves a team(s) of people to collaborate, brainstorm, create, test, and rework etc. However, he continues, "The best designs....are driven by the vision of one person." (p. 97) He contends that designing for the behavioral side is different than for the visceral or reflective side. The first requires the iterative, human-centered design approach in order to meet the needs of the largest number of people. To satisfy the other human processes calls for someone who has a clear idea of the model and encourages those aspects of design that involve such concepts as  artistry, creativity,  interactivity, emotion, and reflection whilst preventing monotony, dullness, and blandness. In other words, user-centered design needs to balance the practical with the creative; the logical with the unexpected; and the usual with the innovative. Sir Ken would be an enthusiastic supporter for this recognition and lauding of a bridging of paradigms. 

The video linked below, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab  illustrates this melding of the creative, the passionate, and the practical across interdisciplinary teams. Listen to where and how these designers get their ideas. Click on the small image of the video to see a larger version.

"We're going to make the future" A short film about the Media Lab by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jesse Dylan/FreeForm.

Way to go with The Creative Connection!