Re: [projectvrm] Ambient Interface

[Peter Cranstone < >]

Got to love those UI's :)





Peter




On 9/13/13 8:43 AM, "Dan Lyke" 
<
 >
 wrote:

>Stupid GMail interface meant the first pass of this went straight to
>Peter. Sorry.
>
>On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 4:08 PM, Peter Cranstone
><
 >
> wrote:
>> Browserless Information should be glancable and require no
>> navigation (I don't agree with this other than to display a
>> picture. There has to be a menu somewhere).
>
>A menu is a way to navigate a hierarchical tree. I think what many of
>us desire in interfaces is flatter navigation, which is why the world
>tends towards command-lines. And if you're one of those people who
>says that we've settled on the GUI, I offer one observation: Search is
>a command-line for the web.
>
>But really, I suspect that what T.Rob means by "ambient interface" is
>one that takes already available information and acts on it. This
>isn't the environment around me presenting me with a menu, this is it
>engaging me in a conversation.
>
>It's a tricky space: When I flip a light switch, I want the light to
>go on. I don't want the light thinking "what did he really mean?"
>(Mostly [1]). But when I do switch on that light, I'm telling my
>environment a lot more than "hey, I'd like some more light in here".
>Likewise when I turn on my stove, or open a door, I'm engaging an
>interface, but if those handles have notion of context, they can know
>to do a lot more than light the burner or allow me access to the room.
>
>Okay, here's one: My bathroom light switch plate has 3 switches
>(light, fan, heater) and a timer knob (heater). One of those switches
>has 3 positions, light off, on low, and on. If I'm up in the middle of
>the night, I want the default to be "on low". If the hall light is on,
>I want the default to be "on". If something knew the state of the
>other lights in the house, it could figure this out from how I
>interacted with the switch right fast.
>
>No smart phone. No touch screen. In fact, probably the same physical
>hardware. And, yes, I'd pay $50 to know that I was far less likely to
>stumble into the bathroom in the middle of the night, want to find
>something, and accidentally turn on the bright light and make myself
>*wide* awake.
>
>This is why designing interfaces now, or starting with interfaces, for
>the "Internet of Things" seem to me to be doomed to failure: I shed
>gigabytes of intent just walking around my two bedroom house. I
>already have buttons in the house that confuse visitors[2]. What I
>need is not more buttons and menus, but fewer. Which brings us to:
>
>> Calm Should be seamless with the environment
>
>One only has to look at the mocking of walking and texting to see that
>phones aren't seamless with the environment.
>
>> Persistent connection Information must be current, and
>> regularly updatable (this will eat your data plan and
>> battery on mobile if not coded carefully)
>
>The interface must be responsive. This is different for different
>applications. A tenth of a second is too much lag in some UI, in
>others we're happy to have interfaces with latency of minutes
>(although sometimes we'll but in a secondary effect to message the
>user that something will happen: beeps when we press the crosswalk
>button, feedback on thermostats).
>
>> Decision driven data Should be personalized and summarized
>> to help users make decisions quickly and easily. "Should I
>> bring an umbrella with me today?" (Context is key)
>
>Great example: If there's rain forecast, maybe my hat stand knows
>about the weather and rotates to put my wool outback hat on the
>accessible side, rather than the ballcap. Doesn't force the decision
>on me, just makes a recommendation.
>
>The interface for the Internet of Things will be on a screen, and
>especially on a touch screen, only if the Internet of Things has
>failed horribly and utterly.
>
>Dan
>
>[1] http://www.kosherswitch.com/
>[2] Hot water recirculator. "Help, I was on the toilet, pushed that
>button because I wanted to see what it did, and now there's a humming
>that I can't turn off". When we stopped laughing... Of course now we
>have a bidet seat, hopefully the Toto icons don't really give visitors
>like that a shock...