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HCI

The study, planning, design and uses of the interfaces between people (users) and computers. (source: Wikipedia)

Treating enterprise software like game design

“Recognizing different layers and viewpoints gives game designers a nomenclature for understanding games’ inner workings and highlighting shortcomings. For example, a game aimed at a social aesthetic needs some form of multiplayer or social network integration. A game aimed at competition needs a visible score or ranking and consistent, well communicated rules.”

(Anthony Langsworth a.k.a. @alangsworth ~ Random Acts of Architecture)

The dawn of the next era of human computer interaction

Sometimes it’s going really fast when a technology giant puts its weight behind it.

“The history of Human Computer Interaction has had a few notable eras and we are at the dawn of the next era. In this talk I will describe those previous eras and how various factors shaped our interactions with computing as well as lead into how the forces at play in today’s world are calling for a new era with new design solutions.”

(Samuel Moreau ~ Design Authority videos)

The woman behind Apple’s first icons

Honoring our historical roots is what makes us more mature as a relevant domain in world history. Even though is still three decades old, sort of.

“Thirty years ago, as tech titans battled for real estate in the personal computer market, an inconspicuous young artist gave the Macintosh a smile. Susan Kare was the type of kid who always loved art. As a child, she lost herself in drawings, paintings, and crafts; as a young woman, she dove into art history and had grandeur dreams of being a world-renowned fine artist.”

(Zachary Crockett a.k.a. @zzcrockett ~ Priceonomics)

Proceedings of Chi Sparks 2014: Creating the difference

Proud to have contributed to at least one of the papers.

“At the Chi Sparks 2014 conference, researchers and practitioners in the HCI community convene to share and discuss their efforts on researching and developing methods, techniques, products, and services that enable people to have better interactions with systems and other people. The conference is hosted at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and proudly built upon the previous conferences in Arnhem (2011) and Leiden (2009).”

(Chi Sparks 2014 ~ April 3, 2014)

Why so much ‘science’ used in design is ‘bs’: Android, Losada and Frankfurt

Using power words doesn’t make any opinion any better.

“It looks like Google’s Android UX team used a now-debunked research paper to guide much of their UX work. Does this mean the Android interface now needs to change? Probably not, and that might be worse. I’ll look at what this means and how we can be more careful when using research to inform our work.”

(MJ Parnell a.k.a. @Neovenator ~ Hopeful Monsters)

I’ve heard the future of interaction

Cinema being a great source of inspiration, cross-overs and examples for HCI. Think cinematographic effects, transitions and stories.

“In the end, I cannot help but feel I was looking at a promo for Life in a Silicon Valley Youth Village at some future Disneyland. I have a strong suspicion that I was exposed and advanced product-placement for future mobile/cloud services in a two-hour advertisement. Certainly, this style is in keeping with Spike Jonze’s oeuvre. Perhaps Apple secretly sponsored this Super-Siri ad pre-Super-Bowl, in preparation for its next breakthrough announcements, in honor of the Mac’s 30th birthday, or in honor of its memorable 1984 Superbowl ad for the Mac. That might explain the absence of Google Glass… and the emphasis on Super-Siri. Well, enough said. This provocative film obviously inspires more talking and listening (…) about humanity. Can you hear me now? I hear what you are saying, Spike Jonze.”

(Aaron Marcus ~ ACM Interactions Magazine)

The future of UI and the dream of the ’90s

Dream on…

“In this dream from the 90’s, we hoped for a world where every computer knows us personally. We would wake up to them, have them around us all day, and they would be the last thing we interact with before we go to sleep. They would predict our needs and wants and all interfaces would feel as natural as having a conversation with a friend. Technology would become our primary means (or only means) of communication and we would form relationships with these objects that take care of us.”

(Helen Tran a.k.a. @tranhelen)

Why Her will dominate UI design even more than Minority Report

Movies as a source of inspiration and vision visualization for HCI designers has grown more mature.

“It’s not just that Her, the movie, is focused on people. It also shows us a future where technology is more people-centric. The world Her shows us is one where the technology has receded, or one where we’ve let it recede. It’s a world where the pendulum has swung back the other direction, where a new generation of designers and consumers have accepted that technology isn’t an end in itself – that it’s the real world we’re supposed to be connecting to.”

(Kyle VanHemert a.k.a. @kvanhemert Wired)

The building blocks of designing UX for kids

Differentiation of the UX field into multiple roles: customers, patients, citizens and kids.

“Designing for kids is a unique and challenging situation for any UX professional. While many principles and practices span across all ages, there are many issues which arise exclusively when dealing with children. In this introductory article we’ll look at kids and the specific issues that they bring about. We’ll also examine some guidelines, constraints, and considerations that you should take into account when designing UX for kids.”

(Justin Smith a.k.a. @xenoabe ~ webdesign tuts plus)

Intuitive equals familiar

How qualities of UIs become used in UX.

“One of the most common terms of praise for an interface is to say that it is “intuitive” (the word should have been “intuitable” but we will bow to convention). Yet the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) literature rarely mentions the word, and for good reason. This note attempts to clarify the meaning of “intuitive” for non-HCI specialists.”

(Jef Raskin 1994)

The paradox of wearable technologies

Still lots of design territories to discover in the ‘wearable sphere’.

“Welcome to the new world of wearable computers, where we will tread uneasily as we risk continual distraction, continual diversion of attention, and continual blank stares in hopes of achieving focused attention, continual enhancement, and better interaction, understanding, and retention. Google’s latest hardware toy, Glass, which has received a lot of attention, is only the beginning of this challenge.”

(Donald A. Norman ~ MIT Technology Review)

The human in HCI: What you can learn from the bard (and others)

But can HCI et al. handle this significant upscaling?

“How does one account for the human within human-computer interaction? One approach historically embodied by the HCI field is firmly reductionist, a distillation of functional entities in which a human comprises “information processing systems” and “decision-making agents.” It has a quantitative outlook with scientific rigor and statistical significance of data to ensure accurate validations of hypotheses. This grounds everyone in rational discourse and technical conclusions. And it’s absolutely important and useful, just not entirely sufficient.”

(Uday Gajendar a.k.a. @udanium ~ ACM Interactions magazine)

Why a new Golden Age for UI design is around the corner

But can HCI et al. handle this significant upscaling?

“Over the past 30 years, as every facet of our lives, from our shopping to our schooling, has migrated onto computer screens, designers have focused on perfecting user interfaces—placing a button in just the right place for a camera trigger or collapsing the entire payment process into a series of swipes and taps. But in the coming era of ubiquitous sensors and miniaturized mobile computing, our digital interactions won’t take place simply on screens. As the new Disney World suggests, they will happen all around us, constantly, as we go about our day. Designers will be creating not products or interfaces but experiences, a million invisible transactions.”

(Cliff Kuang ~ Wired) courtesy of markvanderbeeken

Investigating the state of UX and UI design in tech

System thinking for UX design is disrupting our field.

As web and industrial design begin to collide, UX and UI design are particularly ripe for disruption. ~ “The last major shift in design arguably occurred in the 90s as print design gave way to web design, and designers suddenly had to deal with web safe colors, alias fonts, and the information design challenges of a non-sequential medium. Two decades later, design is approaching a similarly monumental shift as designers move from designing for the web to designing for systems.”

(Jenn Webb a.k.a. @jennwebb ~ O’Reilly Radar)

Manipulation and design

That’s what you get when business takes on design.

“Manipulation is deceptive. Design should be supportive. Theoretically, the two are separated by intention. But increasingly, in practice, the two forces are converging. This may be inevitable, as fields of sales, marketing, and design collide. I hope not. I’m troubled by the collision, and how it manifests in digital products.”

(Jon Kolko a.k.a. @jkolko ~ UX Magazine)