Interaction Design Above the Level of a Single Man

My kick-off presentation at IxDA London October Meetup.

The subject of the evening was inspired by Russel Davies' post “Software Above the Level of a Single Man” — a provocation with amazingly simplicity but very deep in its implications.

The main point we wanted to discuss was the shift as designers from "design for my phone, for my watch, for my [personal context here]" to "design for our car, our home, our office/workplace, our classroom, our [shared space/context here]".

Because as soon as you move away from the "level of a single man", you have to deal with (and design for) the complexity of “human interactions”. And it's not only a matter of defining personas, contexts, use cases; but also of understanding relationships, hierarchies, “meanings”, emotions.

Are we ready to deal with this change of paradigm? What are the complexities that we have to take into account? Are there already studies, real projects, examples of possible solutions, and what can we learn from them?

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Thanks Jason and Boon to having me hosting the event: it was a great honour.

Transcript

1. interaction DESIGN above the level of a single man
2. 28 October 2015 TESCO DESIGN OFFICES
3. Software Above the Level of a Single Man - Russell Davies http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2015/06/software-above-the-level-of-a-single-man.html
4. Will the Internet of Things set family life back 100 years? - James Pallister https://medium.com/@DesignCouncil/will-the-internet-of-things-set-family-life-back-100-years-18ce46b96646
5. Thinking Responsively: A Framework for Future Learning - Paul Robert LLoyd http://alistapart.com/article/thinking-responsively-a-framework-for-future-learning
6. Amazon Echo: We put Jeff Bezos' always-on microphone-speaker in a family home http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/16/amazon_echo “the Echo has gone from being a slightly unwelcome houseguest to a member of the family in a surprisingly short time. Even to the extent that the four-year-old in the house said, while away from the house for a few days "I miss Alexa." "Alexa, where is my bicycle?" asks one of the kids. Of course the answer you want is "I don't know where your bicycle is," but what you get is "I didn't understand your request." Which, oddly enough, feels a little too formal.
7. + = 3
8. ”FAMILY“
9. TEAM
10. CLASSROOM
11. community
19. [ ... ? ]
20. “COMPLEXITY”
29. “CONTEXT”
31. a new member ?
32. PRIVATE PUBLIC PERSONAL
33. Love Friendship Trust Affection Empathy Remorse Shame Envy and more... Ambivalence Acceptance Aggression Ambivalence Apathy Anxiety Boredom Compassion
34. Love Paranoia Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Suffering Sympathy and more...
35. Love Paranoia Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Suffering Sympathy and more... Connected People
36. OUR SPEAKERS Claire Rowland UX and product consultant Nick Cristea creative DIRECTOR