November 05, 2005
Conference sessions during days 2 and 3
Days 2 and 3 of DUX 2005 included panels of authors of case studies, practice studies, research studies, and sketches from 11 countries -- sessions intended to be designed
to highlight and contrast key elements of the accepted submissions, to comment on industry trends, and to help attendees identify papers in the proceedings they'd want to be sure to read in detail.
Poster sessions filled the long Bayfront Gallery with attendees discussing case study specifics with authors.
An invited panel of distinguished designers discussed industry trends.
And Edward Tenner (pictured at right being interviewed by Heather Gold) closed with an insightful, historical perspective on innovation and adaptation to the unforseen.
Thanks to all the participants in these many sessions, to all those who submitted papers to the conference, and to the many submission reviewers and mentors. Special thanks to Program Chairs Rakhi Rajani, Clark Dodsworth, and Nancy Frishberg.
Posted by richard.anderson at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2005
Opening plenary at DUX 2005
San Francisco's Cowell Theater, site of thousands of dance, music, comedy, and theatrical performances, provided the perfect setting to explore the relationship between stage performance and designing for user experience.
Heather Gold provided comedic insight, to be integrated throughout the conference in her role as emcee.
J.Walt provided a moving graphic performance combining video, animation, gestural drawing, sculpture, music, and dance, taking interactive graphics into uncharted territories.
And Tony Award winning Bill Irwin dazzled with his insights from years on the stage about the language of the body and important lessons which "improv" offers to designers.
Dinner and conversation in the historic Fort Mason Center Firehouse brought day 1 of DUX 2005 to a late evening close.
Posted by richard.anderson at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2005
A bit more on Edward Tenner's closing plenary presentation
The DUX 2005 website provides Edward Tenner's impressive bio, and an earlier blog posting provides pointers to additional information about Dr. Tenner.
But, how about a title and abstract for Edward's presentation? Here they are:
Unintentional Design: Uses of the UnexpectedNew materials and processes are often greeted as exciting opportunities for design. But their very pace makes it more difficult than ever to foresee the consequences of innovation. With the ubiquity of the web, both positive and negative surprises can arise not just from overlooked physical and chemical processes, but also from complex biological and social interactions. The history of technology, design, and society suggests that a balance between a strong personal vision and an openness to innovation by users makes possible successful adaptation to the unforseen.
The closing plenary session of DUX 2005 will occur the afternoon of Saturday, 5 November beginning at 4pm.
Posted by richard.anderson at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2005
World Usability Day and DUX 2005
The opening day of DUX 2005 -- Thursday, 3 November -- is also World Usability Day, "a day created to help everyone know more about the ways to help create a better user experience of our world."
In more than 70 cities in 35 countries, events will promote awareness of the benefits of usability engineering and user-centered design.
The initial events of World Usabilty Day will occur in New Zealand. The final event will occur 36 hours later in San Francisco.
The events of World Usability Day will be highlighted during the DUX 2005 opening plenary session. And BayDUX, primary sponsor of the reception to follow the opening plenary, has designated the opening plenary reception a World Usability Day event. As Keith Instone wrote to me, "whoever drinks the last beer at the reception will officially close World Usability Day." (Keith, who has helped in the development of World Usability Day, will be at DUX 2005 and may very well be the person who drinks the last beer.)
Posted by richard.anderson at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2005
A bit more on Bill Irwin's opening plenary presentation
The DUX 2005 website provides Bill Irwin's impressive bio, and an earlier blog posting details the themes of Bill's involvement in the conference.
So, how about a title and abstract for Bill's presentation? Here they are:
"The Language of the Body": Lecture-DemonstrationBill Irwin's lifelong fascination with the language of the body has fueled his work as a performer. He has deep expertise in performing-experience design across several ancient and highly evolved disciplines, with much for digital designers to learn.
In this special lecture-demonstration, Irwin offers insights from his years on stage about the physicality of communication and his own use of the body's language. Can the performer predict audience responses? How does a human performer optimally manage the audience's focus and distraction from moment to moment? How do performers collaborate to create more than they expected, and sail into uncharted territory? Improvisation can be considered a model for software to truly adapt to the user, instead of the reverse.
The opening plenary session of DUX 2005 will occur the evening of Thursday, 3 November beginning at 5:30pm.
Posted by richard.anderson at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
Edward Tenner to close DUX 2005
As referenced on the conference website, Dr. Edward Tenner -- acclaimed writer, speaker, consultant, on technology, culture, and the history thereof -- will be the featured speaker of the closing plenary session of DUX 2005.
Clark Dodsworth, DUX 2005 Program Co-Chair, shares the best links he has found on Edward Tenner:
His home page, with a great deal of info, several interviews, his books, and a bio at the bottom: http://www.edwardtenner.com/A good educational technology website with two Dr. Tenner articles, a review of his book, "Why Things Bite Back," and links to both that book and his other, more recent book, "Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology": http://www.edtechnot.com/nottenner.html
David Gergen, editor of "U.S. News & World Report," interviews Dr. Tenner on MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/september96/bite_9-5.html
Excerpt from "Our Own Devices": http://www.wnyc.org/books/17968
Article by Dr. Tenner in the Washington Post, August, 2003": http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A34960-2003Aug23¬Found=true
Letter at Slate by Tenner regarding Malcolm Gladwell's book, "The Tipping Point": http://slate.msn.com/id/2000154/entry/1004849/
Excellent quote from Dr. Tenner's column in Technology Review: http://aaronland.info/weblog/2001/11/28/3667/
Review of "Our Own Devices" in the Boston Review, by Carl Elliott, Visiting Associate Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton: http://www.bostonreview.net/BR28.5/elliott.html
We are delighted that Edward has agreed to close our 2005 conference.
Posted by richard.anderson at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2005
Bill Irwin to open DUX 2005
As referenced on the conference website, Bill Irwin has achieved many external honors (Guggenheim, MacArthur, Pew Charitable Trusts grant, Clown Hall of Fame) that recognize his accomplishments and support his work in theater. We are thrilled that he has agreed to open our 2005 conference, because he will open or extend our conversations on several important themes:
* physical intelligence
As a clown, mime, and actor, Bill Irwin has demonstrated that he excels in physical intelligence. He is expressive through every gesture - the glance, the grimace, the angle of the body, a step - as well as rhythm and pacing. So much of human-human communication depends on these gestures, and yet in digital communication many of these aspects are ignored, disguised, or lost. We look to Bill Irwin to acknowledge the physical dimension. That same physical dimension of our devices should not now be thought of as separate from screen interaction design... or, ideally, from the unique workflow of a given user. Mutability of function, display, and device to best serve the user is now a rational though difficult goal. Mr. Irwin and performers of his caliber do such blending of channels as a matter of course. We believe there's much for designers of digital experience to learn from his multiple performance disciplines.
* the role of emotion in interaction - and human experience
What is expressed through gesture? Usually, a great amount with little effort. Often it's the emotional content of the message. The ability to reveal and disguise emotion consciously is a hallmark of great acting, and likewise an aspect of human expression which our digital tools have severely limited abilities to convey. We look to Bill Irwin to evoke the emotional dimension. In addition to the emotional channel, the powerfully compact messaging that gesture can deliver are eventually going to be tools for digital designers. Projects like "Put That There" at the Media Lab in 1982 are closer to reasonable implementation today, and Bill Irwin's insights can help as we move forward.
* improvisation
Many interaction designers have come to understand the importance of spontaneity and improvisation in their own abilities to collaborate on interdisciplinary teams. Further, predictive capabilities of digital tools enable them to appear more spontaneous and, in the fullness of time, grow to personalize themselves to the user in non-maddening ways. We look to Bill Irwin to gain insight into improv.
* interplay between audience and performer
Live performance - in contrast to film, video and other recorded formats - allows the player to read the audience and instantaneously adjust various dimensions of a show in order to bring the audience to the essential message of the work. As a master of timing and physicality, Bill Irwin understands how to move an audience. We look to him to reveal how to manage, extend, and assist the audience's experience, whether that audience is one or 1,000, whether they're interested in entertainment, work, or active exploration.
We look to Bill Irwin - mime, clown, actor, director, choreographer, playwright, dancer, comic (and live action model for the title character in Stuart Little) to help us reclaim the full spectrum of human behavior by recognizing the physical, emotional, spontaneous, and managed interaction in communicating with our colleagues and our tools. The fact that he's a self-described "computer illiterate" makes him even more appealing, since he stands on the shoulders of 10,000 years of experience in the skills of live performance, little tainted by all our assumptions about digital experiences and mediation through machinery.
Posted by richard.anderson at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)