Re: [projectvrm] Colo floods

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On Sep 15, 2013, at 8:12 AM, Katherine Warman Kern 
<
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 wrote:

> Peter, aren't you in Boulder? 
> 
> Having been through Sandie just a year ago, my heart goes out to anyone on 
> this list in the Colo area effected by the flood.
> 
> K-
> 
> On Sep 13, 2013, at 11:24 AM, Peter Cranstone 
> <
 >
>  wrote:
> 
>> Got to love those UI's :)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Peter
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 9/13/13 8:43 AM, "Dan Lyke" 
>> <
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>>  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...
>> 
>>