Interview (mp3, 22:55, 21.5MB, May 2007)
Dr Yvonne Rogers, HCI Chair at Open University and co-author of the book Interaction Design, talks with Namahn about the assumptions that underpin calm computing, the values it supports and her alternative vision of how she sees technologies going forward.
Asked to define Mark Weiser's model of calm computing—or ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp)—Rogers explained that Weiser envisioned computers as unobtrusively embedded in our environment. He considered how the different technologies could be designed so that information would appear or disappear around us as needed and we could lead calm lives. Weiser's vision has led researchers to try to create context-aware computing in various settings and Rogers provides examples of projects with less than successful results. She notes that modelling these environments has been hard because research has tried to predict people's emotional states in different contexts and since people are so complex there are just too many variables.
What drives companies like Apple and Vodafone to produce these visions? Rogers suggests that they are useful to get people thinking about the kind of world we should be designing for and whether there is something wrong about the human values that technologies are enforcing. Do we really want to lead calm lives? Rogers turns Weiser's vision on its head, claiming that, on the contrary, we need to be emboldened! She gives examples of her own research projects, which have put ubiquitous devices in the hands of people to discover their environment and make inferences themselves. Her vision of Ubicomp is one in which we use technologies as tools and she's looking at how we can design novel technologies to support learning that's exciting, provocative and playful.