Saturday, 9:15am, Grand Salon A
Do we have the conceptual tools necessary for designing with
next-generation technologies? Multi-touch surfaces are going
mainstream. New technologies for interacting with information are
moving from the lab to our homes. Every year we see intriguing demos
at TED and other conferences. Clearly, the iPhone is just the
beginning. Yet our current design language is based on concepts such
as affordances, feedback, and natural mappings. And it emerged from
technologies such as radio buttons, scrollbars, and menus. Is this
sufficient for what is coming?
To answer this question I present four examples arising from everyday
interactions with the world. First, how do we count coins? Second, do
we interact with physical and digital photographs in different ways?
Third, how do we play games like Tetris and chess? Fourth, and
finally, why do we talk with our hands? The answers will surprise you.
Close examination of these examples reveals that interaction is much
more complex than we usually think.
This talk argues that our conceptual tools for interaction design are
more limited, and limiting, than we currently believe. The concept of
“interaction” as currently understood is based on a host of
assumptions, many of which run so deep that we no longer see them as
assumptions.
Is interaction necessary? Of course it is. But for what?
SPEAKER
Karl Fast
Karl Fast is a professor in the Information Architecture & Knowledge
Management program at Kent State University. He teaches information
architecture, human information interaction, and related topics. His
research concerns the role of interaction with information for
thinking, reasoning, problem solving, decision making, and other
cognitively complex activities.