Awareness and the home Mickey McManus President & COO, MAYA Design, Inc.
Machine to Machine Manifesto 1. Focus on the “ ghosts” in the machine 2. Magic is bad 3. Forget technology 4. Provide Awareness 5. Think bigger
MAYA Design, Inc. Users are the ghosts in your machines
MAYA Design, Inc. A quick example of a hostile user experience
Direct experience: aggregating positive and negative interactions Overview > Research > Analysis > Design
Personas help us map breakpoints
Overview > Research > Analysis > Design
after Lexicon shifts to user-centered (not system-centered) language Reference desk = Ask a Librarian Before and After
MAYA Design, Inc. The home is an even more hostile user experience (when you try to add pervasive elements)
Test Results: Packaging User 6: Has difficulty opening the package Mixed realm experience (w/ uncontrolled environment)
Test Results: Instructions User 2: Too many manuals
Test Results: Packaging User 6: Has difficulty opening the package (continued)
Test Results: Instructions User 4: Too many words, not enough pictures, no quick setup
Test Results: Instructions User 1: Terminology is difficult; he needs a setup wizard
Test Results: Instructions User 4: Instructions are hard to follow
Test Results: Instructions User 4: Instructions don’t help the average person
Test Results: Instructions User 1: He can’t tell the difference between Z-Wave and X-10
Test Results: Instructions User 6: No explanation for advanced concepts like “sensor groups”
Test Results: Setup and Configuration User 5: User is hurt by very loud alarm during test
Test Results: Setup and Configuration User 6: User is surprised by loud alarm during test
Test Results: Setup and Configuration User 3: Presses button on sensor instead of on base station
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
MAYA Design, Inc. Make it tangible
MAYA | Visage
One example? What if interfaces belonged to each user and not to each machine? MAYA | Design Research: Personal Universal Controller (PUC) In preliminary PUC tests, users completed tasks with 80% fewer errors -- and in half the time.
MAYA Design, Inc. Ignore technology
MAYA Design, Inc. Situational Awareness= ambience+attention
MAYA Design, Inc. Think bigger
Experience and the emergence of pervasive (tangible) computing Mixed realm experience (w/controlled environment) Mixed realm experience (w/ uncontrolled environment) Single realm experience Number of information devices Pervasiveness of experience (totality-tangibility) Home, community Auto, building, etc. Web app
Challenges to adoption in the home? Ghosts in the machine - It is time to stop thinking “human computer interaction” but rather “human information interaction” (we need to start focusing on the user’s mental model/goal for all that information) Tangibility vs Magic -Ignore information architecture and interaction physics at your peril Forget technology -No way to currently “author” pervasive experiences (experimentation is hard) Awareness - It will become the driving function as the world shifts to an attention economy (those who demand too much attention through too few channels without enough value will fail) Think bigger -Trillions of nodes (hundreds/thousands in a given home or community) WILL happen… traditional engineering will not work (think evolution in the wild)…time to start thinking about style, shared practice and urban planning in the world of machines
“medium and literacy” “Any medium powerful enough to extend man’s reach is powerful enough to topple his world. To get the medium’s magic to work for one’s aims rather than against them is to attain literacy.” Alan Kay
Thank you