Keep The Noise Down

Boost Brain Power

Having read an article on how to increase one's productivity it got me thinking whether there is something missing from our design strategies. We want users to achieve their mental peak when using an application but what are we doing to encourage this?  Where is the Mental Strategy?  Research shows that mental performance is improved by standing, walking and even simply gesturing yet the average office set up supports this trend of sedentary experiences, based more on comfort than optimising a user’s thinking ability.  

My point is that devices and applications in a business context should be conducive to optimizing our performance.  Unfortunately given half a chance many workers would relish a zero-gravity reclined-seating workstation. In an inactive society where a device which contributes towards our obese nation such as the remote control is celebrated for helping satisfy our sedentary desires, would a device that bucks this sedentary trend and shifts away from the desk-and-chair paradigm be well received? 

If research shows that physical activity can rejuvenate a flagging brain, provide mental stimulation and help us think then why is it not factored in to the design? 

I have been heartened by the Wii (and not forgetting Sony’s EyeToy) which has been instrumental in getting many couch addicts up off their backsides. The Wii is a games console designed to create a fun and immersive gaming experience and not to boost brain power but there is much we can learn from the Wii.  

It’s more as a by-product of the physical form and the natural user interface that the latest multi-touch table devices encourage physical activity. Whilst there is nothing to stop you pulling up your favourite armchair alongside these interactive tables, this interaction paradigm encourages users to stand, walk and gesture.  If the research is accurate then these devices should improve our thinking power.  

 

So along with the entertainment, interactive and social plaudits heaped on these devices we can now add brain boosting.  Employees who remain deskbound all the time have their productivity stifled so will this be the start of a new generation of active and productive office computer users?

Interaction Revolution

Imagine a digital utopia where designers are free from grid-based design, and precision mouse control & clicks are replaced by gestural mechanisms. Where imagination is not exclusively for the mavericks to throw a curve ball at what’s achievable. Where we move away from the chair-and-desk paradigm and the frightening portrait WALL-E depicts of a human race whose only physical movement is to lift a straw to their lips.  This is the new paradigm – a natural, active and social paradise where reality and virtual reality blend seamlessly with magical results.

Well, not quite.  But there is plenty to savour from a paradigm that incorporates naturalness, encourages social interaction, and brings playfulness to the party.  We are living in interesting times.  Consider multi-touch, these devices offer a different way of interacting and manipulating content.  This is not a subtle change but a revolution in the way we interface with digital content.

Many people are getting their first taste of natural user interfaces and there is an understandable buzz.  The Web 2.0 movement harnessed collective intelligence built on a framework of creativity, collaboration, group thinking and sharing. This was a positive step forward for digital experiences.  Web 2.0 made us feel good about ourselves for being more social while all the time we sat staring at a monitor, engaging in less and less face-to-face contact and developing a distorted view of social relationships. So how do we take another step closer to a digital utopia?

It was with several recent Microsoft Surface projects that I had a eureka moment and realised the possibilities of this new interaction paradigm. As the projects threw up questions, it was the subject of these that made me aware of the dramatic changes ahead: -

·         Does the application work for single user, multi-friends and multi-stranger experiences?

·         Do we have the correct balance of playfulness?

·         Is it an exploratory experience?

·         Does the application have a pulse?

·         What is our social design strategy?

·         and so on...

These were fascinating questions to be asking about any application, even more so an enterprise application.

Natural user interfaces have been around for several decades but we are finally seeing mainstream adoption. The rate at which multi-touch applications is forecasted to grow over the next 3 years means that what are currently a small percentage of designers working on multi-touch applications will increase rapidly as there will be an ever-growing appetite for multi-touch solutions. The iPhone has accelerated the interest in multi-touch, no longer niche, and with Windows 7 multi-touch will truly come of age.  If you’re not working with multi-touch devices or NUI’s then does that matter?  No!  It's less about the technology driving our thinking but more about our thinking driving the experiences. The interaction revolution is as much about the evolution of the way we think about digital experiences. It’s exciting to ask these questions of the new breed of digital experiences.   If somehow we can answer some of these questions then we’ll take a huge leap forward in creating compelling and enjoyable experiences.

 

 

Related reading - Playfulness in a Business Context

Playfulness in a Business Context

Ouch! Received an email this morning stating that playful design has no place in a business context!

For the last 3 weeks a small team of us have been working on an Enterprise Search application and we finally have something to show for our hard endeavours. Our Microsoft Surface Enterprise Search demo rears it's pretty face at FastForward'09 this week.  

Please don’t tell me this enterprise application is not playful!

Playful design has historically been monopolised by non-enterprise applications. We have focused our enterprise efforts on task-focused applications to increase efficiency and failed to acknowledge other success factors. Should playfulness be a measure of success? Playfulness itself is not a measure of success.  For me, creating an experience that engages people and provides entertainment and enjoyment is.  Playfulness is just one element of an engaging experience.

Our challenge over the past few weeks has been to build a Microsoft Surface Enterprise Search demo.  Microsoft Surface is conducive to play - playfulness is a must in the spirit of a Surface experience. So I had a playful strategy in my back pocket, to help shape the design of an application that is social and playful, but ultimately functional and extremely useful.

 

 

Does playfulness in this Search application compromise efficiency? Possibly!  But not much and the playfulness payoff more than compensates for a few lost seconds. We have an unhealthy obsession with getting things done quickly.  The pace of our lives is about 10% faster now than it was a decade ago. Yes, our time is valuable in an increasingly rushed environment but our pace can mean that we fail to savour the better things in life.  This is summed up in by William Henry Davies in his poem ‘Leisure’ where he is frustrated by his busy schedule as it stops him from enjoying the surrounding beauty. I know that feeling so well.

So the Surface search application may be beaten to the finishing line by a desktop application in the race to find some specific content.  But for enjoyment there is no contest. What this application does is challenge the concept that playfulness sits awkwardly in enterprise applications and creates an engaging experience of discovery.  And as the cliché goes, a happy worker is a productive worker. There is undoubtedly a payoff from being entertained.

Web 2.0 has seen a new breed of playful applications but it seems the fun stops there.  Microsoft Office, daily fodder for many of us workers comes certified with a NO Fun policy (oh, let’s not mention Clippy).  I don't derive any joy from the Microsoft Office products – satisfaction, yes, when it helps me complete my task – but there’s no warm fuzzy feeling of enjoyment.  Microsoft Office is efficient (some may argue) and functional but there are no ooohs and aaahs as you build your Excel pie chart.

An enterprise application is task oriented – it’s all about finding the information.  But what if the route that we take to get there is changed.  We could take the shortcut or the picturesque route.  On the picturesque route we have time to enjoy the surroundings and interact with people.  We take slightly longer to achieve our goal but along the way we have built an emotional bond with people and the environment.  Is this really a bad thing?

I will caveat this ramble that playfulness must be well-timed. There is an art to adding small elements of playfulness that do not interfere with the experience.

Playfulness can manifest itself in many forms, such as through copy or interaction design. Not to forget playfulness through interaction with other people.  Many office woes are built around social scarcity, a chance meeting in the office or a stagnant office setup. Yet this Enterprise Search demo facilitates a social and playful experience. 

There is still some way to go with this application but it has been exciting to take something that we generally see as a mundane and routine task and make it fresh and enjoyable.  It’s good to hear the buzz, a laugh and the occasional ‘woooo’ as users work with this search application.

So in response to this morning’s email, playful design certainly has a place in a business context. Next challenge, to make our Timesheet application playful!!!

Follow our Community Day on Twitter - #comday

Have you ever wondered what goes on at an EMC Conchango Community Day?

If so, follow us on at Twitter using the hashtag #comday.  We’ll be keeping both those at Community Day and those that aren’t in touch with what’s happening at Community Day by twittering throughout the day.

The next community day is this coming Friday, 6th Feb 2009 at Notcutt House, London.  Community sessions kick off at 09:30 GMT and include User Experience, Cloud Community, Media & Entertainment Community, Agile Community, Collaborative Solutions Community … to name just a few.

For you Twitterers out there please add the hashtag #comday to any inline posts about Community sessions.  This is not limited to those participating in Community Day as we welcome feedback, suggestions and general chat on any of our posts. Also, let us know what you want to hear about.

Experienced Twitterers can tune out now …

  

For those less familiar with hashtags, well, it helps related tweets get heard above the rest of the Twitter noise by creating a common interest group.   They are tags that allow you to follow a conversation topic.

Get the Twitter feed from Community Day at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23comday

Alternatively, my preference is to set up a search query in TweetDeck.

What’s Twitter?

For those not familiar with Twitter itself then Google it as there’s no shortage of information out there. 

Basically, Twitter is a social messaging utility and a valued player in the social media landscape.  Also referred to as a micro-blogging service, and cynically known as the lazy bloggers service.

See you at Community Day.