Mobile interaction

I've been looking into what I would like to cover for my essay in DE, as well as thinking about areas of interest for my third semester project.

Generally I have been looking at mobile interaction, and I've been trying to look at it from a variety of angles. Jan Chipchase's presentation Where's The Phone? for Nokia was quite useful, as it shows how the research methods produced specific observations. I found the conclusion notable;

"The last 10 years have been about converging more functionality onto a single device - instant messaging, radio, television, music, cameras and so on. Each feature creates new modalities of use and can subtly or drastically change carrying and interaction styles. How does having a camera change how a device is carried? Or access to mobile banking?

We are rapidly moving to the point where, due to miniaturization, flexible components and economies of scale, it maymake sense to de-converge functionality on the phone. Hypothetically, if you took all the features on a phone today and distributed them around the body, clothes and in other carried objects, where might these functions be carried, accessed? And why?"

This notion would seem to contrast to what Intel Research are suggesting with their Carry Small, Live Large Research Program. This says to me that they are proposing that phones will get smaller with more platforms converged within them.

I feel that it could go either way. What I think is important is that they are both looking at how people interact with the devices, as well as looking at contexts and environments.

Space and Place

I've been doing a bit more research in relation to the DE project, which we'll hopefully be finding out more about next week. I've tried to divide my research into three main areas:

• People (and their behaviour)
• The space and it's environment 
• The object or interactive system involved.

I found this paper, which deals with social interactions in public spaces. It was geared towards researching possible frameworks for mobile information systems. I like how they have structured their research and hopefully I can take some of this into how we manage our task as a group.

Whilst thinking about people's behaviour in space I remembered a blog entry I came across last year on desire paths. I always find these desire paths captivating, it helped me realised how people will make a space work for them, even if the design of it impedes them. It's visual evidence of where a designer has "imposed their own will onto the site, as opposed to finding a solution that accounts for the wants and “desires” of the users." I think it will be interesting to also look into urban, environmental and architectural design in relation to the project.

Desire Path - Flickr

In relation to objects and interactive systems, I am often drawn back to my roots in interaction design. I find it hard to get away from looking at big interactive systems like display screens and a lot of the examples on Interactive Architecture. I do like a lot of this stuff, although sometimes I feel these interactive pieces can verge too much on the art side of things and fail to acknowledge an actual requirement.

I did find this blog Interactive Displays in Public Spaces, which had some interesting insights, particularly in regards to zones and behaviours around the displays. There's a link to a good write-up on SlideShare, with some useful diagrams.

Diagram of interactive display in public space

The web in the world

I had a brief look at a presentation by Timo Arnall called The web in the world. He describes how emerging technologies are impacting on mobile platforms and concentrates on "ideas around presence, location, context awareness, peripheral interaction as well as haptics and tangible interfaces".

Arnall's work can also be seen here and here, with some interesting insights into design and research.

Simplicity

Something else which I thought about whilst in London was the notion of simplicity. I saw the film Powers of 10 by Charles and Ray Eames in the Design Cities exhibition, and it struck me as a fairly perfect piece of information design. It manages to communicate a complex subject through an animation, which is simple, understandable and interesting.

Powers of 10 - from YouTube

I think I will take another look at some of John Maeda's work as well, he's moved from MIT to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). I think it is important in ethnography to try and make complex information understandable, particularly when communicating research findings for instance.

This also started me thinking about the role of technology today and how it can transform how we behave, for example the introduction of the walkman shaped the way in which we listen to music. I feel today people sometimes rely on technology too much. Don't get me wrong I like to see evolution in technology, just as long as it enhances rather than complicates. 

I hope that I can explore this deeper this year, potentially through projects but also through further reading.

People in Space

Whilst in London I was attempting to observe things in relation to the group project we have been set in DE. The full brief has not yet been handed out, however we were told that it will involve people, and how they collaborate in space, particularly with big interactive systems. I tried concentrating on watching how people behaved in public spaces, and how they dealt with systems such as ATMs and ticket kiosks. It was also interesting to see people interacting with other information devices such as maps and some of the exhibits in the Science Museum. I found that in different situations behaviour became quite similar, especially when it came to queueing for things.

People interacting at the Science Museum

Often I found myself reminded of Jane Fulton Suri's book Thoughtless Acts? It illustrates how "we adapt, exploit, and react to things in our environment; things we do without really thinking." I kept finding examples in London such as an empty coffee cup left on a ledge at a tube station, someone sitting on the steps at a statue, and people keeping behind the yellow line at an ATM.

Thoughtless Acts

Jane Fulton Suri is involved in the human factors section at IDEO. Last year I read the article Informing Our Intuition, which I found related to me and my desire to understand people in order to create intuitive design. It was also interesting to read her describe the need for design research to be "integral to the innovation process, rather than as an external activity."

I actually saw another book along a similar theme in the Design Museum called Design by Use: The Everyday Metamorphosis of Things, which sadly doesn't appear to be in the library here.

London

On Thursday I travelled down to London for a field trip with the MDes/MDE group. We spent a couple of days exploring the city whilst visiting a few museums and landmarks.

Here's a photo whilst on the move in the underground.

On Friday we walked from Westminster to the Science Museum, passing many tourist attractions along the way. The Science Museum was really interesting and it was useful to observe people reacting to the space, and how they navigated the various interactive exhibits.

It all getting a bit snap happy at Westminster.

Afterwards I headed to the Design Museum with a couple of the others, where we saw the Designers in Residence exhibition. I also went in to see the Design Cities exhibition and briefly saw some of Alan Aldridge's work, which was upstairs.

I've uploaded some of the photos to flickr.

Synthesizing

For this week in DE we were given the task of combining all the information we have collected so far, from interviews and observations, and producing a report or communication of the findings. I have been exploring ways of presenting the information so that it is straightforward to read and interpret.

I've been trying to think of different ways to use images/diagrams, and accentuate what I think are important points. This is something that I attempted to deal with in my project last year, where I found that it was important to make the material visually engaging, particularly when communicating with designers.

Gotomedia

Whilst researching into mobile communication I found the Gotomobile blog, which looks at it usability and user experience.

This led me to the company Gotomedia, who create interfaces for mobiles, products and the web. It was interesting to also look at their strategy and process in regards to the My Strategy exercise for the DLPSI module.

Kelly Goto is involved in both the blog and the company, and the blog states that she is "dedicated to understanding how real people integrate products and services into their daily lives". I also found an interview with her here, where she explains the process and project management involved in producing online brands.

I hope to take some of this onboard, as I am interested in people centred research for the creation of new products and ideas.

Everyware

I have been doing a bit of research into ubiquitous technology, and came across a series of papers on the AIGA website.

The first paper I looked at was Mobile Computing in High-End Retail. It shows how an ethnographic study into how managers guided clients through the experience of buying their fashion related products led into the design of a prototype and set of requirements. It was interesting to see how quickly the process was completed, and how valuable they found involving users in the process.

The second paper I looked at was Mobile Essentials: Field Study and Concepting, which looked at the study of"what people consider to be mobile essentials, how those mobile essentials are carried and problems typically encountered." I liked how they looked at the context and situations/places these Mobile Essentials (MEs) were being used in, rather than concentrating on the objects themselves i.e. they looked at the why and how as well as the what. I laughed at the paragraph describing how people remembered their MEs, as I am often seen doing the Phone, Keys, Wallet pat down before I leave the house.

The paper Nokia Sensor: From Research to Product goes into much more detail, providing some insight to the process and decisions made. The product itself can be seen here. Personally I'm not sure on the product's success, however I found an interesting comment here stating that it seemed "like yet another mobile product looking for an application". So I suppose that even when the design is user-centred, and done with all good intentions, the end result can still be ineffective.

Essay thoughts

For our first assessment we have the task of critically reviewing a fieldwork based user research, which has been published by a company or organisation.

I have not looked too thoroughly into the actual company yet, however by looking at the blog Putting People First for my blog review, I have been thinking about the area or theme to focus on.

I want to look into what it is that people actually want technology to do for them. I could explore this in relation to devices such as mobile phones, the Internet, interactive services and home entertainment etc.

I think sometimes there are so many applications and possibilities in today's society, that the genuine needs of people become lost in the design. Often people are often given too much information to handle, and in the end services and products become overcomplicated.

I am still looking at this very generally at the moment. I saw this book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum the other day, which I am keen to get soon, as it looks quite relevant.

Recap

After starting this blog about a bit later than intended, I will try and summarise what has gone on so far. Over the last 3 weeks we have been doing 3 separate modules in the Design Ethnography course at Dundee. They are Design Ethnography, People and Design and Design Led Product and Service Innovation.

The Design Ethnography module has mainly contained learning and practicing various fieldwork techniques including interviewing and field-note taking, and also learning about the professional debate.

The People and Design module has so far included 2 lectures from Terry Irwin, on Worldview and the McDonaldization of society. There has been some very interesting points on certainty, sustainability and the future of design.

The DLPSI module has involved learning about innovation, strategy and processes in relation to design, particularly in a business sense.

It's been a fair amount of information to try and take in, analyse and then relate to a personal stance, and I think it will be easier to do this once the projects get in to full swing.

I blog, therefore I am...

Having been unsuccessful at keeping a blog going before, I will attempt to keep one again, this time in relation to my thoughts and musings on Design Ethnography.

Hopefully I will be able to document my reflections on the Design Ethnography course content in which I am partaking, as well as looking at other sources of inspiration.

I am eager to look at how user-centred research can help design better products, services and experiences for people.