When we want to get to know another person, we have to share some of our personal or private opinions and feelings. Some people are more afraid of doing so — they are afraid of being vulnerable — and that’s what we refer to as shy, more or less. In a recent discussion about Experience Design, we came across the Social Button again: Primarily it is intended to facilitate exactly these initial steps towards an interpersonal relation. The button reveals matching personal criteria (common friends, e.g.) by displaying some meaningful graphics on the Social Button of the corresponding person. It is not only exposing private data (to certain extent) but uses another person as “billboard” — two factors that might make us feel uneasy in a similiar way than the usual face-to-face situation but initiated by technology.
It seems as we have to trade in control for getting to know others more easily. It was one of our goals to reduce the reasons for these privacy concerns as far as possible by implementing a symbol decoding on a subjective basis.
Preparing an interview with Nathan Shedroff (which will be conducted by Jane Pitrowsky) I focused on an emotional aspect of my master project, the creation of feeling at home. According to Shedroff we cannot avoid evoking experiences for the user (as experience is closly linked to perception, e.g.) but it becomes a designer’s responsiblity to take care of the emotional and sensual implications of his creations (Some of his perspectives are difficult to apply to my project because I develop a service rather than a single product). …
For recent and recurring reasons I started to think about a “VPN bashing module” for our Master-Room in the fhp.
The vpn-client that became our only and obligatory access to the internet seems to have its own intelligence that acts according to plans beyond human understanding (maybe extraterrestrial). Every now and then he chooses a deliberate candidate to kick out of the network, sometimes followed by periods of denials to all attempts of reconnecting.
This is not only undermining the belief in the predictabilty and determination of technology but is also really making us mad and breaking up the holy work-flow. As the resulting aggression has to find a way out and is better deflected from the other inhabitants, a punching ball might serve that purpose. With some sensors built in and a computer with AutoHotkey running, a procedure to initate a reconnect should be easily available.
Plus: If vpn doesn’t reconnect at once one can keep punching the ball (really hard). Some other applications for that interaction principle might come to your mind as well.
A more general overview over things happening and that happend in the field of ambient displays. The more mobile aspects will be further explored.
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Asim Smailagic und Dan Siewiorek 2003
Bevor wir jemanden ansprechen, gebietet es uns die unsere gute Erziehung, seine Gesprächsbereitschaft einzuschätzen: Unterhält er sich gerade, ist er in die Arbeit vertieft oder ist ihm ohnehin gerade langweilig? …
