Our world is made of information that competes for our attention.
What is necessary? What is not?
When we design products, we aim to choose the best position for user interface components, placing the most important ones in the most accessible places on the screen.
Equally important is the design of communication. How many are notifications are necessary? How and when should they be displayed? To answer this, we can be inspired by the principles of calm technology.
Principles of Calm Technology
Technology should require the smallest possible amount of attention
Technology can communicate, but doesn’t need to speak.
Create ambient awareness through different senses.
Communicate information without taking the user out of their environment or task.
Technology should inform and create calm
A person's primary task should not be computing, but being human.
Give people what they need to solve their problem, and nothing more.
Technology should make use of the periphery
A calm technology will move easily from the periphery of our attention, to the center, and back.
The periphery is informing without overburdening.
Technology should amplify the best of technology and the best of humanity
Design for people first.
Machines shouldn't act like humans.
Humans shouldn't act like machines.
Amplify the best part of each.
Technology can communicate, but doesn’t need to speak
Does your product need to rely on voice, or can it use a different communication method?
Consider how your technology communicates status.
Technology should work even when it fails
Think about what happens if your technology fails.
Does it default to a usable state or does it break down completely?
The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem
What is the minimum amount of technology needed to solve the problem?
Slim the feature set down so that the product does what it needs to do and no more.
Technology should respect social norms
Technology takes time to introduce to humanity.
What social norms exist that your technology might violate or cause stress on?
Slowly introduce features so that people have time to get accustomed to the product.
10. caseorganic.com
PetNet is not held responsible for any service failures:
Source: http://readwrite.com/2016/08/01/petnet-shows-happens-iot-fails-dl1/
15. caseorganic.com
“A good tool is an invisible tool.
By invisible, we mean that the
tool does not intrude on your
consciousness; you focus on the
task, not the tool.”
Mark Weiser -- 1993
17. caseorganic.com
Calm Technology
5 years later
o Google’s Digital Wellbeing program (Instrument
agency + adapts Calm Technology book)
o Microsoft Windows 11 based on Calm Technology
o Samsung Electronics Introduces a New Era of Calm
Technology Centered on SmartThings at SDC22
o Several international car companies adopting calm tech
principles for 2025 releases
25. caseorganic.com
1. Machines shouldn't act like humans
2. Humans shouldn't act like machines
IV. Technology should amplify the
best of technology and the best of
humanity.
51. caseorganic.com
Thank you very much!
Amber Case | @caseorganic
http://caseorganic.com
case@caseorganic.com
http://calmtech.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
It’s not just the kitchen
It’s not just the kitchen
YOU AGREE THAT YOU WILL NOT RELY ON THE SERVICES FOR ANY SAFETY OR CRITICAL PURPOSES RELATED TO YOUR OR YOUR PET.
And that’s why we need a calm technology
VirtuSphere Virtual-Reality Simulator for Mil/LE Tactical Training
A company called VirtuSphere, Inc. (Sammamish, WA) has a product called, appropriately enough, VirtuSphere, which can apparently provide a rather unique Mil/LE tactical training and simulation experience. Due to its design, the VirtuSphere provides "infinite space" and claims to also provide "the most immersive [virtual reality a.k.a. "VR"] experience for simulated training, exercise and gaming." The VirtuSphere platform consists of a large hollow sphere that can rotate 360 degrees as the user walks, runs, somersaults, etc. inside it while wearing a wireless, head-mounted VR (virtual reality) display a.k.a. wireless VR headset. Co-invented by Nurakhmed “Ray” Latypov and Nurulla Latypov (both corporate officers at VirtuSphere, Inc.), the VirtuSphere has been developed with…
the assistance of a team of research scientists and developers at the HIT Lab (Human Interface Technology Lab) at the University of Washington, including Dr. Suzanne Weghorst, a senior research scientist and assistant director of research at the UW HIT Lab. The joint project between VirtuSphere and the HIT Lab was reportedly made possible through a Research and Technology Development (RTD) grant from the Washington Technology Center (WTC).
VirtuSphere was selected by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for their Virtual Technologies and Environments (VIRTE) program (Phone: 703-696-0360, Email: 342_VR@onr.navy.mil) in October, 2005. Training & Simulation Journal (TSJ) reported on that event when it happened.
www.defensereview.com/virtusphere-virtual-reality-simulat...
Signal: Machines assisting humans
Augmenting workers with robot parts
Companies are supporting workers by equipping them with lightweight robotics to help them stay mobile and participate in the workforce for longer. For instance, some are equipping older factory workers with a wearable robot that supports the lower back when lifting, minimizing the chance of injury.
By giving an aging workforce small scale robotics to superpower them to act like younger workers, they're redirecting force and shifting the current power dynamic, where workers become less physically capable as they age. This elasticizes the workforce in new ways and could become an increasingly important practice as populations age across the globe.
What:
Japan's older employees are now using robotic suits to help them lift heavy loads
So what:
Recovery time is dramatically decreased. Older workers can stay in the workforce longer. You can have your workers back on the floor 3-6 months sooner than before In healthcare, bed sores are easier to avoid because they can be more easily lifted. Less people needed to lift a single person. Female workers may be assisted by robotic exoskeletons, enabling them to do heavier tasks. By year ten, smaller equipment may be required to do large tasks.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1EEZPtVqaQ
Omotenashi (“o-moh-teh-nash’ee”) is ”the quality of being thoughtful and considerate of others, so that you can anticipate their needs and adjust your actions accordingly.
Small, considerate acts like offering a hot towel to customers are rooted in omotenashi and are the reason for Japan’s world-famous level of customer service.”
It arose in ancient times out of the tea ceremony, when the host took painstaking care to brew a beautiful cup of tea for each guest.
“Amber, can you explain what this image is, and what it says about tech+design?” “Kaz, Mune, do you have any thoughts or reactions?”
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As the world rushes to automate, customer service becomes increasingly important. Technologies are often unpredictable, difficult to understand, and frustrating to use.
Japan Reshuffles the Deck by using systems thinking and cultural hospitality to ensure that even complex computer interactions have a human side, especially when things go wrong. Instead of thinking of an automation terminal as a solution, the entire system of success and failure is considered.
This systems thinking design process, along with traditional concepts of hospitality, creates a system of successful interaction between humans and machines in increasingly complex and unpredictable scenarios.
In the face of many of today’s macro challenges, the most devastating impacts and
biggest opportunities to manage global change exist at the hyper-local level.
Rather than waiting for massive regulatory overhauls or societal backlash, organizations can bolster the resilience of local communities in many ways,
such as developing new forms of portable infrastructure for growing food, purifying water, and generating electricity. Many of these tools are being developed for emerging economies where volatility is nothing new.
In the face of many of today’s macro challenges, the most devastating impacts are global in reach but hyper-local in direct impact. If and when national and global interventions prove inadequate to mitigate the imapacts of disrupted infrastructure, relocated refugees, and deflated economies, local action will be the power play of last resort. With backs against the wall and institutions failing to provide tangible benefits, we should expect to see local communities start to take matters into their own hands. When they do, they will find many new tools and distributed infrastructure plays emerging to shore up their resilience.