20:20 Vision

Last night I went along to view a discussion being held at Sensation in Dundee as part of the Dundee Science Festival taking place this week.

It included a series of talks from a number of researchers who had come from all over the UK, who each had 20 slides, and 20 seconds per slide, to present their thoughts on the role that technology will have on our digital future.

Some speakers chose to pick a single project whereas others gave a quick overview of their background and research focus using highlights from a number of projects. There were some really great ideas being brought forward, particularly in regards to how technology can create relationships and act as a bridge between people and communities.

Often in the media we see a vision that depicts digital technology creating a divide and alienating people from society, and so it was invigorating to see a group that were on the whole using technology to bring people together and solve these issues.

Lalya Gaye and Joëlle Bitton, both from the Culture Lab at Newcastle University, illustrated the work that they had partaken within the SiDE project. It was interesting to see how they were using craft and creativity to tackle social exclusion by teaching people about digital technology and the benefits that it can bring.

It was also fascinating to see the work from Chris Speed and Simone O'Callaghan, who were applying stories through QR codes to traditional artifacts, which in it's own way was also connecting people and places.

Lastly, I found the talk from Mike Chantler to be particularly engaging. Although he was talking about textures and their visual attributes, which had the potential to be a fairly mundane topic, the passion and enthusiasm he showed for the topic grabbed everyone's attention and made it just as appealing. Hopefully I can take this into all the presentations I do in the future.

Alienation through technology

For our group project this semester in DE we have been discussing ideas and looking to focus our research. We all agree that often technology can alienate individuals or even entire communities. We feel that design has the potential to prevent this alienation, and we hope to look at how people interact with publicly-cited information in order to inform this.

Through looking at and understanding peoples needs and actual requirements, we feel that a design could help prevent this alienation. We are under the opinion that it would be a good idea to concentrate on the elderly as a group. We feel that as a group they are often not taken into consideration when new technology is produced. We also feel they will have a good insight into the community aspect of the project, and there will be a lot of areas to look in to. 

I got a bit ahead of myself and started thinking about how we might present the research. I remembered the paper by the RED group at the Design Council I looked at last year when I was researching how to present my findings. I feel their booklet on ageing is a really good example of how to tell and present the stories of the people we spend time with.

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.

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.