This paper discusses a specific category of information systems known as Ambient Information Systems. These systems present information in a non-intrusive manner, acting mostly on the periphery of our attention, following Mark Weiser’s concept of calm technology.

The major concern that drives the development of these systems can be summarized in two aspects: first, as pervasive computing increases, ordinary objects are becoming capable of processing and displaying data, thus the consumption of information will occur in many different contexts, which may contribute to an information overload, generating stress. The second aspect is that Design plays a major role in developing better ways to deal with this information overload. For a long time designers have been studying how to design communication systems that drive our attention, but little research has been done in exploring how to design communication systems that act upon the periphery of our attention.

In this paper four Ambient Information Systems are discussed, highlighting their characteristics and limitations. As a conclusion, the author proposes an agenda of topics that should be tackled to advance future research on this subject.

Amid the rush and bustle of urban centers, we are exposed to many different information systems [1]. Although the presence of such systems can be easily perceived, it is possible to go by without noticing them, usually because we don’t feel the need to consult the data they present, or because we have our attention focused on other tasks. Public clocks, traffic status displays, are some of the most obvious examples of these systems. Advertising posters and outdoors that populate our urban landscape are also information systems with which we deal every day and often go unnoticed. Their presence does not require our immediate attention, staying mostly on the periphery of our perception. When these information systems are augmented with computer technology, they are also called peripheral displays (Mankoff & Dey, 2003).

Much has been said about the overwhelming amount of information to which we have been exposed lately. This is partially due to the increasing use of computers in the beginning of this century, which not only has made it easier to produce and distribute data, but also has increased the connectivity between different systems, cultures and people all over the world. The changes we experience are so intense that it is common to use terms like “digital revolution”, “information technology revolution”, “information revolution” to describe them. The word “revolution”, common to these definitions, implies that radical changes are underway, in the sense that there is a rupture, which extends from the global economy to the private activities of an individual.

As a side effect of this digital revolution, information now comes from many sources and in different formats, such as text messages and Twitter tweets in our mobile phones, RSS Feeds, Facebook friend’s updates, instant messages on our desktop computers, e-mail, and so on. Although it seems to be almost impossible to keep track of this amount of data on daily basis, as Hemp (2009) points out, we’re still compelled to do so, even if it make us feel uncomfortable:

The flood of information that swamps me daily seems to produce more pain than gain. And it’s not just the incoming tidal wave of e-mail messages and RSS feeds that causes me grief. It’s also the vast ocean of information I feel compelled to go out and explore in order to keep up in my job (Hemp, 2009, p.2).

As ubiquitous and pervasive computing increases, ordinary objects are becoming capable of processing and displaying information. Therefore, the consumption of information will occur in many different contexts and situations, which may contribute even more to this information overload, generating stress in a higher level.

Design plays a major role in developing better ways to deal with this information overload. Although designers have been studying how to design communication systems that drive our attention for a long time, little research has been done in exploring how to design communication systems that act upon the periphery of our perception. Considering that not all information needs to be in the center of our attention all the time, we should investigate innovative ways to present information into the periphery, taking advantage of our preattentive processing. As Weiser and Brown described, “By placing things in the periphery, we are able to attune to many more things than we could if everything had to be at the center. Things in the periphery are attuned to by the large portion of our brains devoted to peripheral (sensory) processing. Thus, the periphery is informing without overburdening” (Weiser & Brown, 1996, p.9).

Ambient Information Systems describe a set of applications that publish information in a non-intrusive manner, mostly acting on the periphery of our attention. The community of Human-Computer Interaction professionals has been exploring this subject for a while, but with little participation of the Design community. Although there are already interesting results on ambient information systems, I believe that Design has much to contribute to advance the research in this area. In this article, some ambient information systems are discussed, highlighting their characteristics and limitations. As a conclusion, I propose an agenda of topics that should be tackled to advance future research on this subject. In order to be able to deal with this increasing information overload, we should have a better understanding of what it means to design for the periphery of our attention.

Ambient information systems

Ambient Information Systems are information systems that continuously present information that can be monitored by people without requiring the focus of their attention. In these systems data is presented mostly to the periphery of human attention. Presenting outside the main focus requires less cognitive effort for its consumption. This form of information delivery has manifested in several different implementations, but the overall theme revolves around how best to embed information into our surroundings (Hazlewood et al, 2008).

In these systems the major concern is how to present information in a discreet way, without being necessary to stop any activity to perceive them. In a world with an increasing number of information sources, which can be accessed from many devices and in different contexts, Ambient Information Systems represent an attempt to minimize the effort required to keep up with so much data. This concern is intensified with the rise of pervasive computing, as the most common objects may become information systems. It is necessary to find alternatives to prioritize the sources of sensory stimuli around us. An interesting strategy is to relegate to the background of our attention the information that is not essential, but which we can access at any time.

One of the earliest known examples of this type of information system is the Dangling String (also known as Live Wire), a project developed by artist Natalie Jeremijenko at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC). This system was in fact an installation in which a plastic wire was connected to an electric motor installed in the ceiling of a room. The engine was connected to the network of the institution by an Ethernet cable, so that the flow of network data directly interfered in its motion: when there was a heavy data flow, the engine turned faster, while a reduced flow caused the motor to turn slowly. The plastic wire followed the movement of the engine, producing a noise when moving fast. The combination of movement and noise was easily perceived from a distance, without interfering in any action that was occurring. The idea of the installation was not to accurately report the amount of data traveling through the institution network, but to give a sense of its flow and enable people to have a visual cue that could be associated with data traffic.

Figure 1: Dangling String (http://nano.xerox.com/weiser/calmtech/calmtech.htm)

The Dangling String is a typical example of an ambient information system. These systems usually present information in a discreet way, without drawing too much attention to itself, giving constant support to the monitoring of non-critical information.

This concern with discretion and with a non-intrusive information presentation has its roots in the work of Mark Weiser, precursor of research in ubiquitous computing. Unlike much research on computers occurring at that time, when he started the program on ubiquitous computing in the late 80’s, Weiser was less interested in technical issues and more in the context of use or the impact that the increasing presence of computer technology would have on our lives:

The program was at first envisioned only as a radical answer to what was wrong with the personal computer: too complex and hard to use; too demanding of attention; too isolating from other people and activities; and too dominating as it colonized our desktops and our lives. We wanted to put computing back in its place, to reposition it into the environmental background, to concentrate on human-to-human interfaces and less on human-to-computer ones (Weiser, Brown & Gold, 1999, p.693).

In anticipation to the proliferation of information sources competing for our attention due to the integration of computing devices to everyday objects, Weiser showed special interest in making the use of these systems simple. The goal then was to make the computers “disappear” into a given task and become as a simple tool that could be used without demanding our attention:

In the last several years a few of us at PARC have begun to speak of calm computing as the goal, describing the desired state of mind of the user, as opposed to the hardware configuration of the computer. Just as a good, well-balanced hammer “disappears” in the hands of a carpenter and allows him or her to concentrate on the big picture, we hope that computers can participate in a similar magic disappearing act (Weiser, Brown & Gold, 1999, p.695).

Weiser, Brown and Gold believed that the most profound technologies are those that “disappear” by being so embedded in our lives. As stated by the authors, the idea of calm technology indicates a stage of computing evolution in which we use this technology without realizing it. It is precisely the idea of calm technology that underpins many of the ambient information systems. The information almost “disappears”, being presented in a discreet manner, but can be easily brought to the center of our attention and used whenever necessary. This displacement between periphery and center of our attention is one of the main features of calm technology.

It’s important to notice that in what regards Ambient Information Systems, information is meant to be perceived, which implies a specific type of communication. Ambient Information Systems are not suitable for complex data, which require detailed analysis. Rather, the intention is to present data in a subtle way, so that the information is perceived without effort and causes no disturbance. Normally, the Ambient Information Systems are used in situations that are not task oriented, that do not require immediate action in response to the information displayed. This type of interface does not apply, for example, to an air traffic control terminal, where operation requires a high level of attention from its operator. As highlighted by Weiser and Brown (1996), not every situation is suitable for a calm technology approach. Designing systems that act on the periphery of our attention requires special care:

Not all technology need be calm. A calm videogame would get little use; the point is to be excited. But too much design focuses on the object itself and its surface features without regard for context. We must learn to design for the periphery so that we can most fully command technology without being dominated by it (Weiser & Brown, 1996).

As previously noted, the ability to move information between the center and periphery of our perception is a central issue for the calm technology concept, one that still guides the research on ubiquitous computing. Much research in this field seeks to develop “intelligent” products and systems which can operate independently, without our assistance. In theory, while at the same time the advances in technology allows the creation of objects with computational and informational resources, capable of communicating with each other constantly, this interconnected environment would not be a burden to us precisely because it would be possible to move the information provided by these systems to the background, without requiring our direct attention.

Figure 2: the center and periphery of human perception

From a more modest scope, yet aligned with the idea of reducing the cognitive effort required for information consumption, the Ambient Information Systems are an application of the calm technology concept, without requiring complex contextual data analysis or advanced artificial intelligence systems. Many projects on this field are based on the enrichment of our peripheral attention, presenting information in such a way that it can be perceived without demanding effort, assisting in the intuitive understanding of a more complex situation. This approach is also based in our preattentive processing (Healey, 2007; Healey et al, 1996), which is normally associated with visual perception, but may also occur through the stimulation of other senses (Lima, 2005).

Consider the communicative act itself, occurring through different media, as an example of this enrichment of our peripheral attention. In a telephone conversation, part of the understanding of what is said occurs by the way we talk. That is a level of information that goes beyond the “text” that is enunciated. Subtle variations in the intonation of the speech can bring more information, underlying what is said. In a similar way, in a videoconference, the image of the speakers provides more information that acts upon the periphery of our attention. By viewing the subjects and their behavior, we can have a better understanding of the discourse, even though we’re not focusing our attention to this subtle information. In e-mail communication, which relies solely on the written word, disagreements often occur due to the reduced peripheral information that could help in understanding the message, demanding greater attention to the writing of the text, what probably wouldn’t be required in a face-to-face conversation. Voice inflections, body movements and facial expressions are peripheral information that help us to communicate without requiring greater cognitive effort, as they are perceived intuitively.

To better understand how we can apply these principles to the design of Ambient Information Systems, four projects are described bellow, which in different ways deal with non-intrusive presentation of data. The limitations of these projects will be highlighted and possible improvements discussed.

Ambient Umbrella

The goal of this product is to solve a trivial problem: decide whether or not to take an umbrella when leaving home. Normally, a person would try to get informed about the weather conditions of the day to decide that. This could be done by reading the weather forecast in the newspaper, or accessing a website that provides the weather forecast, or watching the weather channel on the TV. In addition, of course, one could look through the window to see if there are any signs of rain.

In any of the options described above on how to get informed about the weather conditions, some steps would be necessary before taking a final decision on whether or not to take the umbrella. If a person does not have the signature of a daily newspaper, would have to go out and try to buy one. Another alternative is to consult the Weather Channel on TV. In the absence of a television channel with the weather forecast, and without a newspaper at home, one would have only left the option to look out the window and make a guess, or use the computer to seek the information on a website which presents the forecast for the day. This operation in turn requires more time and energy: it would be necessary to turn on the computer to access a particular site, request the information, interpret the information received, and only then would one be able to know what would be the chances of raining on that day. A series of steps to get some basic information, which would take time, require cognitive effort and certainly a good dose of patience.

The Ambient Umbrella addresses this issue in a relatively simple way. The umbrella actually “tells” you if it will rain. If the weather forecast for the day is rain or snow, the umbrella illuminates its handle. The concept is similar to the Weather Rooster (see Figure 3), which changed its color according to the humidity in the environment, indicating the possibility of rain.

Figure 3: The weather rooster (galinho meteorológico) is an interesting Brazilian predecessor of the Ambient Umbrella, without needing any computing device. The rooster is coated with layers of cobalt chloride, a chemical with the property of changing its color depending on the humidity of the air. The blue color indicates low humidity, while the shades of pink indicate an environment with higher humidity in the air. Obviously the accuracy of this system is limited, since the humidity of an environment is not related only to the weather conditions, hence the cobalt chloride could be affected by other factors than climatic conditions. (Personal archive)

While the weather rooster has a relatively simple operation, its modern equivalent is based on a more complex system. The Ambient Umbrella receives weather forecast from a specialized website through radio waves. Depending on the forecast, the handle lights up indicating rain, drizzle, snow, and thunderstorms. From the user’s standpoint, it is an umbrella, which simply lights its handle when it will rain. The idea is really that the technology involved in the process should not be perceived.

Figure 4: The Ambient Umbrella lights its handle when there is chance of rain, thunderstorms or snow. The system is connected to a weather service. (http://www.ambientdevices.com)

The information here is presented in a discreet, non-intrusive way, without disrupting any activity that occurs simultaneously in the environment. Whenever one needs to decide if taking the umbrella would be necessary, a quick look at the handle already gives the answer in a prompt, accurate and intuitive way, without requiring any effort. That’s an exemplary application of the calm technology and pervasive computing principles, using computational resources to turn an ordinary object into an information system that requires little attention to be used.

The Good Night Lamp

This project seeks to communicate the act of coming home to loved ones, making use of an object as simple as a lamp. When one gets home and turns on the lamp, a signal is sent to other similar devices remotely connected to the emitter, and the light of these receptors is simultaneously lit. This way one can tell when he/she is “connected”. The remote lamps, with their lights on, show that one person turned on his/her lamp, which by convention indicates their presence at home.

Figure 5: The Good Night Lamp: each lamp has a corresponding lamp in a different scale, which are connected remotely. When lighting the lamp, its correspondents will also have the light turned on, indicating that the person is at home. (http://www.goodnightlamp.com)

The designer Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, who created the lamp, believes that the way people live in society is changing; we now have a constant need of being accessible. In fact, in recent years it’s noticeable the growing popularity of social network sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and instant messengers such as MSN Messenger, Skype, from which it’s possible to keep in touch with our friends, even those that we don’t see very often. Using these services it is possible to monitor the daily routine of our friends, expressed through their posts, their comments, photographs and other personal information made public online. Similarly, the increased use of mobile phones has generated a sense that we are always accessible, traceable, linked to these devices in such a way that they have been called “digital leashes” (Weerakkody, 2008). This type of behavior reinforces what Deschamps-Sonsino calls a feeling of being always on, sometimes off. The designer believes that in the future “we will learn to share parts of our lives with our families, friends and lovers in more subtle ways with the help of an ever sensitive, invisible and intelligent technology”. (Deschamps-Sonsino, 2008)

Here we see the application of a principle present in many instant messengers, in which the interfaces usually present a list of the user’s acquaintances, named “contact list”. Each person in the contact list has his/her status indicated by an icon. If a person is online, with the program running, but is busy on other tasks, he/she can change his/her status so that the program will display an icon indicating that the person is busy. Similarly, there are visual conventions for different states of the users (online, invisible, busy, available, away, etc.).

The appropriation of this principle, used in instant messengers, to visually indicate the status of a person in the system (in the case of Good Night Lamp, the light turned on indicating the presence, the light turned off indicating that the person is absent) applied to an object as ordinary as a lamp is an example of an ambient information system. An information system integrated to the environment, with the amount of data reduced to a minimum so that the communication does not interfere with other tasks, staying on the periphery of our attention. The instant messengers, so far, are computer programs that run mostly in “conventional” computers and imply particular contexts of use, which in no way resemble the calm technology approach. The Good Night Lamp becomes part of the house, working without interfering with the actions of its residents, and conveys the sense of presence and proximity with people far away. Although in the current proposal only two binary situations are represented (on/off or present/absent), it could be possible to create other states, using variations in brightness, glowing effects, so that each light situation would indicate a different state of the user (present but busy, for example).

Thirsty Light

This project aims to help on the maintenance of houseplants by constantly monitoring the plant’s soil to check its moisture, and warning when it is necessary to water the plants. The apparatus consists basically of a rod with a bulb containing a LED alert at one end and a humidity sensor at the other end. The operation is relatively simple: bury the pod with the sensor in a potted plant and it will measure the soil’s moisture. When the moisture reaches a certain level, considered low for the maintenance of the plant, the light at the opposite end of the probe starts blinking. The lower the humidity of the soil, the faster the LED flashes, indicating the urgency of watering the plant. The whole system is based on technology called Drypoint, consisting of the humidity sensor and the digital circuit contained in the upper bulb, which receives and interprets the information sent by the sensor, and makes the LED flashes according to parameters received. The sensor works with 5 different levels of moisture, allowing it to be adapted to specific plant’s needs.

Figure 6: Thirsty Light, appliance designed to monitor the moisture of the soil and alert you when the plants need to be watered. (http://www.thirstylight.com)

Although the system is relatively simple, it is still necessary that the person pay attention to the plant’s characteristics and specific needs. While some species prefer more moisture, others survive better with less water. On the product’s website there is a disclaimer, advising the user to pay attention to the behavior of the plants in order to set the device properly, according to the characteristics of each species. If a plant absorbs moisture faster than others, the rod should be positioned with the sensor closer to the surface, a region that tends to dry faster.

As we can see, even though the Thirsty Light can assist in the maintenance of home plants, it is still necessary to have some knowledge about each plant’s needs, at least on the early stage when it is necessary to perform a “fine tuning” on each probe, by placing the sensor on a position that best responds to each plant. But once these initial adjustments are made, the behavior of the system is quite non-intrusive, blending into the surroundings while at the same time constantly monitoring the condition of the plant’s soil, and thus, acting as an ambient information system. It gathers data and presents it to its user without disturbance.

Ladybag

Developed by students of the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, Canada, this project is about an ordinary object, a woman’s handbag. Using electronic components, the proposal is to make a bag as a mirror of its user’s emotions. In this case the bag is classified as an Affective Communication System (ACS). In addition, the bag is able to identify the presence or absence of the most important items normally found in a woman’s handbag, according to its creators: keys, wallet and cell phone [2]. In this case, the bag acts as an Effective Organizing System (EOS).

To act as an Affective Communication System, the bag has to be pressed on specific points, where pressure sensors are located. Once pressed, the sensors trigger the bag’s LED screen, on the outer surface of the bag, displaying an icon corresponding to a different emotional state. For each sensor there is a set of emotional states, which vary according to the applied pressure. The user must memorize the location of each sensor, and the corresponding emotional states, so she can express herself correctly through the Ladybag.

Figure 7: Ladybag: diagram showing the location of the sensors and the corresponding emotions (http://www.ladybag.official.ws/)

To operate as an Effective Organizing System, the bag uses RFID technology to keep track of the objects placed inside, depending less on the user’s action. Basically, objects with radio frequency identification tags (RFID tags) are tracked by a RFID reader in the bag. If one of the items is out of reach, the sensor activates the bag’s LED screen on the outer surface, indicating which object is missing.

Figure 8: Ladybag as Effective Organizing System (http://www.ladybag.official.ws/)

In both versions of Ladybag, either as an Affective Communication System (ACS) or as an Effective Organizing System (EOS), the outer surface of the bag works as an ambient information system, providing information on the status of both the user’s emotional state or the absence of objects linked to the system, in a discreet and unobtrusive way.

It should be noted that the ACS version of the Ladybag depends on a direct action of the user to enable it to express her emotions. So, while it may be seen as an ambient information system, since it presents information in a discreet way, it is necessary a conscious action from the user for the system to act. This way, it is possible to argue that this project cannot be classified as calm technology [3]. Alternatively, to make the system less depending on the user’s action, biometric sensors could be used to constantly monitor the user’s body, in order to notice changes in her emotional state without requiring a conscious action to display this information.

Discussion and further research

The projects described above have in common the fact that they present non-critical information in a discreet manner, acting mainly into the periphery of our attention. As we have seen, this is particularly interesting considering that computer technology and information systems have become widespread in our lives, and will increase even more in the years to come. Pervasive computing opens up new possibilities for accessing information, by augmenting ordinary objects with computational resources, allowing them to perform many different tasks such as warning us about weather change, letting us know when our friends come home, reminding us that plants needs to be watered, communicating our emotional state. On the other hand, ubiquitous computing also increases the amount of information to which we are exposed. Design has much to contribute in creating novel interfaces that can guarantee that this information overload won’t turn into noise, generate stress or become a burden.

There are many issues that still require research regarding the design of Ambient Information Systems. How to evaluate the effectiveness of a system that should not be intentionally perceived by its users? The most known evaluation methods, which usually are task-oriented, don’t seem to be suitable for this kind of system. Which metrics, heuristics and evaluation methods should be used, considering that in most cases there isn’t an explicit task to be performed by users? Research in the field of visual perception and cognitive psychology (Healey, 2007, 1996; Lima, 2005) and specific studies on Ambient Information Systems (Hazlewood et al, 2008, 2007; Mankoff & Dey, 2003; Tomitsch et al, 2007) are being conducted, bringing a better understanding about this subject, but much remains to be investigated. Is there some kind of information that is more appropriate for this type of system? What does it mean to design for the periphery of our attention, considering that we are not restricted to our vision, that we could also explore the sense of touch, hearing and smell?

The answers to these questions are beyond the scope of this article. It is clear, though, that the design of Ambient Information Systems is a relatively new field for designers, and thus it is essential to deepen the research on this subject. This article is a preliminary result of an exploratory research being conducted on this subject, and the main intention was to stimulate the debate on the Design community about Ambient Information Systems, whose importance tends to grow in the near future.

References

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Chipchase, J.; Persson, P.; Aarras, M.; Piippo, P.; Yamamoto, T. (2005). Mobile Essentials: Field Study and Concepting. In: Designing the User Experience 05 (DUX 05). Retrieved March 4, 2009, from http://www.janchipchase.com/blog/archives/Chipchase_mefsac_SKETCH.pdf.

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Notes

[1] Information systems refers to all the persons, procedures and equipment designed, built, operated and maintained in order to collect, record, process, store, retrieve and display information, using different technologies (Houaiss & Villar, 2001). In this article we are especially interested in (but not limited to) systems that use computer technology to collect, record, process and display information.

[2] Curiously, the three items selected as essential items to be tracked by the Ladybag system, were also identified as the most frequent items to be found in the bags of people from different cultures around the world, according to the research conducted by Chipchase et al (2005). The date of the creation of the Ladybag project is prior to this research, discarding the possibility that the authors of the Ladybag have selected these three items based on the findings of the research conducted by the Nokia research group. The choice of which items would be essential to keep tracking, however, was similar to what was identified by the Nokia research group. The difference is that in the study conducted by Chipchase, besides the cell phone and keys, money was the third item, instead of the wallet.

[3] After performing some user tests, the authors of the Ladybag found that using pressure sensors to report emotional states was considered relatively complex, due to the difficulty of memorizing their location, and to relate each pressure point with a corresponding emotion. As it turned out to demand the user’s attention to fully operate the system, the Ladybag cannot be considered a calm technology device, at least from the standpoint of its users. However, it can be considered an ambient information system as it communicates the emotional state of its user discreetly for those who are around.

Reference to this article

PINHEIRO, Mauro. Designing for the periphery of our attention: a study on Ambient Information Systems. In: DRS 2010 Design Research Society International Conference, 2010, Montréal; Proceedings…CD-ROM. Montréal, 2010.

Pinheiro, M. (2010). Designing for the periphery of our attention: a study on Ambient Information Systems. In: Proceedings of the DRS 2010 Design Research Society International Conference.

This article discusses a specific category of information systems known as Ambient Information Systems. These systems present information in a non-intrusive manner, acting mostly on the periphery of our attention, following Mark Weiser’s concept of calm technology.

The major concern that drives the development of these systems can be summarized in two aspects: first, as pervasive computing increases, ordinary objects are becoming capable of processing and displaying data, thus the consumption of information will occur in many different contexts, which may contribute to an information overload, generating stress. The second aspect is that Design plays a major role in developing better ways to deal with this information overload. For a long time designers have been studying how to design communication systems that drive our attention, but little research has been done in exploring how to design communication systems that act upon the periphery of our attention.

In this article four Ambient Information Systems are discussed, highlighting their characteristics and limitations. As a conclusion, the author proposes an agenda of topics that should be tackled to advance future research on this subject.

Segue a descrição do livro, direto do site da editora:

The Triumph of Design / O Triunfo do Desenho é o primeiro livro resultante do projecto online The Radical Designist: A Design Culture Journal, que publica artigos científicos de referência na área do design e da cultura visual. Esta edição reúne uma selecção de textos de autores prestigiados e intervenientes no domínio do design, que provêm, alguns, desse projecto, outros de conferências e outros foram redigidos a convite para esta obra.

Autores: Eduardo Côrte-Real, Lara Maia Reis, Martim Lapa, João Palla Martins, Fernando Oliveira, Helena Barbosa, Anna Calvera, Vasco Branco, João Paulo Martins, Verónica Devalle, Ana Lucia Lupinacci, Luz del Carmen Vilchis, Marisa Cobbe Maass, Mauro Pinheiro, Zeynep Tuna Ultav, Carlos A. M. Duarte, Richard Buchanan, Dennis Doordan, Victor Margolin, Ken Friedman, Clive Dilnot, Keith Russell, Leslie Atzmon, Ranulph Glanville e Leon Cruickshank.

Nesta obra, participo com o artigo Autoria e Comunicação no Design, publicado anteriormente na revista The Radical Designist: a design culture journal.

Quando Laura, minha esposa, teve a idéia de lançar a Oficina Miríade, eu comecei a desenhar algumas idéias para o logo da sua empreitada.

Talvez por ter iniciado minha formação em design quando ainda não era possível usar computadores, ainda tenho o hábito de rabiscar muito antes de sentar em frente à máquina. Sempre gostei de desenhar, e essa prática me auxilia muito a “pensar” a forma. Nem sempre tenho claro o que quero como resultado, e simplesmente desenho, deixando a intuição e a livre associação de idéias guiarem meu traço.

Nesse projeto, isso aconteceu intensamente. Tinha alguns conceitos claros em minha cabeça, e passei dias rabiscando sem compromisso, deixando que meu inconsciente trabalhasse livremente. Sempre de posse de meu caderno Nag (feito pela Laura), quando tinha um tempo livre, me pegava rabiscando, “pensando” através de desenhos.

O resultado dessa prática está abaixo. Diversos desenhos que evoluiram para a versão final. Cheguei a um resultado formal bem claro do que imaginava ser o logo, ainda no estágio de lápis e papel, para só então sentar no computador para desenhar de fato a versão final e trabalhar detalhes, proporções, tanto do símbolo quanto da tipografia (Mrs. Eaves, da Zuzana Licko).

Diversos rascunhos para o projeto do logo da Oficina Miríade. A versão final já estava bem clara na minha mente quando finalmente sentei em frente ao computador.

A partir da idéia inicial, fiz diferentes versões para a combinação do símbolo com a assinatura, dando flexibilidade para diversas situações de aplicação.

Em tempo: tive a felicidade de contar com a ajuda valiosa do Ricardo Esteves Gomes para ajustar detalhes da versão digital do símbolo, de maneira a preservar ao máximo a naturalidade caligráfica do desenho original. Como diria Mies van der Rohe, Deus está nos detalhes.

Nesse projeto, optei por um visual bem limpo, trabalhando basicamente a tipografia. A intenção era que as fotos dos trabalhos se destacassem na página, deixando os elementos de navegação bem discretos. Assim a página final é leve, tanto visualmente quanto em bytes, facilitando o carregamento nos navegadores.

As familias tipográficas utilizadas foram Mrs. Eaves para títulos, e Georgia para os textos.

Partindo de um grid de seis colunas, todos os modelos de página seguiram um padrão bem semelhante. A arquitetura do site é simples, dividida de acordo com os serviços prestados (serviços bibliográficos, serviços de diagramação e serviços de encadernação). Além desses 3 eixos principais, há ainda o Blog, a página com o formulário para envio de email, e a página que descreve a equipe da Oficina Miríade. O site foi feito com WordPress.

A tela de entrada do site.

A tela da seção Serviços Bibliográficos.

A tela com a descrição de um dos álbuns, na seção Encadernação.

Here in Rio de Janeiro, the “italian frozen yogurt” has spread out as the most recent summer goody. The summer has been really long and hot this year, and as frozen yogurt is really tasty and is also low fat, it is easy to understand why it has become a huge sales success. You can have a delicious and refreshing goody without worrying too much with gaining weigth. It is perfectly suited for Rio de Janeiro’s spirit.

I’m not sure which frozen yogurt brand was the first one to arrive here. But, as soon it started to become famous, many other brands has appeared. Today we have different brands, selling basically the same stuff, and using pretty much the same strategy, the same service.

What is most interesting about this is that they also share the same tone of voice. Their communication and design identity are very much alike.

Before I actually tasted a frozen yogurt, I didn’t realize that there were different brands. They all looked the same to me, because I wasn’t really paying attention to the stores. I wasn’t interested in the product they were selling, so I didn’t care about the sales point.

But once I tasted the yogurt, and since then I became a regular customer. And as I started to pay attention, I realized that there were stores in every corner of my surroundings. Really, in my neighborhood there are many frozen yogurt stores, from different brands. I then realized that they were different, but I also realized how similar they were.

One day I went “photo hunting”. I took my camera with me, and took pictures of each store. They are all much alike, the people who work there all appeared to have the same training, although they work for different companies. What strikes me the most is that the logos are also very much alike. If you look at them a little bit more carefully, you can see they are totally different from each other. But I’m pretty sure the regular customer won’t notice the differences.

This made me wonder: to which extend a similar product can lead to a similar design/communication solution? Although the frozen yogurts sold on these stores are basically the same stuff, couldn’t they have used a more unique design solution to communicate with their customers?

In this presentation, Abigail Sellen talks about the challenges we face – as society and as members of the HCI community – in the years to come, and proposes a new agenda for the digital technology development. The presentation is 54 minutes long, so you better get some popcorn, and a notebook to fully enjoy it!

Now I’m happy to announce the new ‘lectures’ section of this website. There you will find all my lectures and presentations. This content is now integrated to the rest of the site, so it can be found using the search, is listed in the archives and so on. Comments are also allowed (although it was already possible to comment in Slideshare). I’m still using Slideshare as the engine, by the way. But now there is no need to go there to navigate through the other presentations.

So, if you can spend some of your time, take a look at the new lectures section.

In this interview, JooYoung talks about the changes occured in the design field and in the market in the past years. Once product design was functional oriented, and now companies try to get a better understanding on what makes people choose among different products. As today products from different companies are much more alike, having pretty much the same basic functions, how do we make something different, that appeals to what people desire? Design research tries to answer this question.

I’ll quote some excerpts from the interview:

It’s natural for companies to shift from a functional to an aspirational focus. Differentiating with features and functions doesn’t help you stand out in the market anymore. You cannot invent another mouse trap and expect to succeed. You have to differentiate yourself by creating emotional connections with your target audience. For example, MP3 players all play music and you can endlessly add functions yet the most successful MP3 players are not the ones that have the most features; they all work equally well. Products that are able to steal our hearts are going to stay and people will come back to you over and over.

Reading this interview, I got thinking about my personal experience with design research. While I worked at Globo.com, my team have conducted usability tests, phocus group, and used other research methods in order to bring some of the final users’ desires to the design process. And now, as a teacher, my students have to work close to the people who will use the products they design. The final users help to design the stuff. One of my goals is to make the students aware that they can’t decide what is best for the end user alone, they have to learn with the final users. To do so, the people who will use the product should participate in the design process. In many aspects, I feel like I’ve been doing design research for a long time, although without an explicit intention or a conscious and rigid methodology.

It is important to note, though, that bring users close to the design process doesn’t mean that people will really design stuff. The statement “designers are not users // users are not designers” is a valuable one, and it is important to have this in mind.

Would you call your practice method a co-designing approach to design research? What are the major differences between user-centered and co-designing approaches to design research?

People mix the two terms all the time. When I use the term co-creation, designers often misinterpret it and think, “Oh, you think regular people can do our job”.

In the co-creation process, designers are still the [design] experts, yet we acknowledge that people are experts of their own experience. One cannot exist without the other. We do encourage non-designers to be creative and express their ideal experience and solutions during the interview process but we never use this information as it is. We turn the information into design cues and principals to feed the design process later.

One of the things I have always wanted to do, but was never really able to do, is to watch people using the products in a real situation, without the controlled environment of a laboratory or the formal interview scenario. Usually when in such a situation, people tend to say things that are not necessarily true – they say what they think we want them to say! But design researchers must watch the real situation, people at home using the products, on their everyday routine. There is much to gain with interviews and usability tests, but much information is better perceived when people are at ease, without focusing on a task.

You can’t just do co-creation exercises without observation or contextual research. For example, when we were conducting mobile phone research in Latin America, the co-creation exercise was always combined with contextual understanding coming from being there in the participants’ own environment.

A lot of valuable information comes from inserting yourself into the participant’s life. One should always follow Do-Say-Make. Observe what people DO, listen to what they SAY and give them tools to MAKE things that represent their ideal experiences and solutions. Depending on your subject matter, you may plan your approaches. For example, if you are trying to help a company create a new surgical tool, you may want to start with days of observation followed by a co-creation exercise in order to gain knowledge around the particular situation that you are unfamiliar with

One of the challenges of design research today, in my opinion, is to represent the data collected during the research, and to make this data useful and understandable for those who are outside the research team – usually, the clients. This is particularly difficult when we are dealing with subjective data, like emotional and experience design. I was intrigued by JooYoung interview, when she said that she is designing some research tools to achieve the representation of this kind of data.

Whatever methodology you use, you want to be able to deliver the insights to the people coming up with the product in a ‘feelable’ form. Sometimes all this amazing data gets lost because it’s in a wordy report format. Insights should be delivered in an experiential form through which people can experience how their target audience feel and think.

The representation of insights and information is extremely important. It should be easy to digest and multisensory. To be able to achieve this, I start designing the research tools [to be] multisensory and experiential. When we provide participants tools that are already experiential and multisensory you have less work to do to represent insights in such a format.

Some of the tools used during the design research. Photo by Design Droplets

Design research is something that we, as designers, should be able to do more often. It is sad that many of us (or our clients) don’t have the time, the budget or the experience to do it.

Read the full interview with JooYoung Oh at Design Droplets’s website.

I don’t take the subway very often, but every time I do it, I find something that gives me chills on the spine. One of these days I saw a map that was placed above the stairs, in such a way that it was impossible to read anything. The map was in the wrong scale, making it hard to read anything from a certain distance, and placed in the worst location one could imagine. The only way you could read something was being in the middle of the staircase, looking up, like if you were asking heaven for some guidance. I should take a picture of that sometime…

The last time I took to the Metro I saw this sign (see photo bellow), pointing to the exits.

Rio’s Metro sign system, at Carioca station. The sign at the left points to the right, and the sign on the right points to the left. And, believe it or not, the upper text in the right corner of each sign is “Exit”. Can you read anything at this scale?

The “beauty” of this is that the sign on the left side is pointing to the exits that are on the right, and the sign on the right side is pointing to the exits that are on the left. I was totally confused when I was leaving the Metro. My natural reaction to any sign like this is to think that the information displayed on the left would be related the exits and pathways on the same direction. I was expecting to read the information about “Av. Chile” exit on the right side, and was almost leaving when noticed that the sign on right side was pointing to the exits that I knew were on the other way. That made me completely confused, so I had to stop and read everything carefully. I barely noticed that the arrow was pointing to the other direction. I finally realized that the exits hadn’t changed places, and that the signage was crazy, not me.

I’m not even complaining about the bad typographic solution (wrong scale, bad use of the space, advertising spots side by side with the signage). This is already as bad as it can be…I have to come close to the signs to read them, what is a bad thing for a signage system that should help you make decisions quickly, considering that you may be in a hurry and don’t want to waste your time.

Am I too picky, or this signage is as bad as I think it is? Drives me crazy to know that the Metro has many (so called) designers working on its signage system.