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I’ve been a bit slow to update my blog so far this semester, a problem i hope to remedy soon. The ‘credo’ project is almost over, or at least the final prototype is due for presentation, so i’m going to upload some of my process work all in one hit.
Here is a pdf i presented in week 2 which goes over my initial thoughts and ideas:
Here are some notes and ideas i jotted down early on, after presenting the pdf:
While thinking about the project, an idea for a font came into my head to use as the main identity and design element of the piece. I went on to design the font, which is shown below:
Using this font and my intials, i established an identity for the credo document:
I will go further into my design and my ideas behind it in another post.
I have been reading a lot of journals and articles for my research on the theme of ‘new technologies’. My group, consisting of Nadia, Sarah and myself, have decided to focus our research on the home, appliances and general usability. I have been looking at what the future might bring, what form will the home of the future take? How will technology be integrated? Are we doomed?!
One of the first readings i came across early on was a paper written by a software engineer who discussed the idea that the human race may well become obsolete once technology reaches a certain level of intelligence. There was a real ‘Terminator’ vibe to it, and while it was only a theory, it was still a bit scary to think of the possibility.
Other readings i found discussed what the future home might become. TV shows love to paint the picture of a home that does everything for us at the touch of a button, e.g. The Jetsons. However, many believe we will see technology that encourages user input. Instead of doing everything for us, we will be encouraged to interact with the technology.
Below is the section i wrote for our literature review, it sums up the rest of the research i did…
Future of homes and technology
Technology is always evolving, especially in the home. Appliances and electronics are part of everyday life, but what kind of developments can we expect the future to bring as technology inevitably advances?
Technology has become so well integrated into our lives that it is hard to remember a time when we did not have such ready access to devices such as computers, mobile telephones and even microwave ovens. The home of today is filled with appliances and electronics products; they are part of every room. We use technology to prepare meals, to clean, to entertain – to do almost all tasks around the home.
But what effect will technology have on the home of the future? If television programs and movies are to be believed, the future home will do everything for us at the touch of a button, enabling us to have leisure time all the time. But in reality, many believe this kind of scenario is unrealistic. Intille (2002) explains: “Based on discussions with medical professionals, patients, educators, and homeowners, we believe that the home of most value in the future will not use technology primarily to automatically control the environment but instead will help its occupants learn how to control the environment on their own.” Rather than letting technology do everything for us, Intille (2002) says that “technology should require human effort in ways that keep life as mentally and physically challenging as possible as people age.”
Another take on the home of the future suggests that technology will in a sense become so well integrated into the home, that it will become almost invisible. Hjelm (2005) explains: “According to Philips’s head of design, Stefano Marzano, the home of the future will resemble homes of the past more than the homes of today. Technological gadgets will be gone, and a beautiful painting on the wall also will serve as a television and computer screen. The decorative object on the table will be a communication station, and the powder compact a mini-computer.”
It is not necessarily the designer’s job to hide technology so that it literally becomes ‘invisible’, but more to design appliances and electronics that fit into our lives so well that they become “a natural extension of our hands and mind” (Hjelm, 2005), and therefore we no longer notice them.
As technology advances, we are seeing smaller, more efficient and more complex electronics and appliances. Various functional aspects from old technologies are being combined in brand new ways in evolving electronics. We have telephones that double up as cameras and multimedia devices, fridges that can access the internet, and hand-held game devices that have software that can teach you to prepare and cook meals.
While some embrace these advances in technologies, others argue that this is not necessarily a good thing, “Instead of using the new capabilities to make life simpler, there is the potential for developers to simply overload everyday appliances with endless, and confusing, functionality for its own sake – with little or no thought given to either their usefulness or usability.” (Designing future appliances 2003) The writer argues that advances in computing and communication technology have generally overtaken product development practices, so we are seeing ill thought-out products that have not been properly user tested.
An example of technology with confusing functionality is the VCR, as the paper Designing future appliances (2003) explains: “Every generation of technologies should reduce the complexities introduced by the previous one. But, as experience shows, that is far from always the case. The most notorious example of an everyday technology that baffles attempts to use it is the VCR. Programming some early models was so complicated that the devices were virtually unusable, and years of development appear to have led to only a marginal improvement.”
On the flipside, an example of technology that utilises multi-functionality well is the PlayStation 3 from Sony. The PlayStation 3 is a computer game console that can also act as a home multimedia hub, allowing users to store photos, movies and music. But where it stands out is an application called Folding@home. “In 2006, Sony teamed up with a research group at Stanford University, CA, USA, called Folding@home, which studies protein folding and diseases such as cancer. Owners of a PlayStation 3 will be able to download software so that their idle game consoles can retrieve data from Folding@home, process these data and molecular simulations, and send them back to the researchers via broadband internet.” (Tilstone 2007) It seems like a strange combination, but a device used primarily for leisure can now be utilised to help researchers find cures for diseases like cancer.
While it is amazing that technology is advancing so fast in this day and age, it can become all too easy to forget exactly who the technology is for. Early adopters generally have no problem picking up the use of the latest electronics with all the latest features, but what about the elderly? Will the home of the future be packed full of technology that is only accessible by early adopters, or will we start to see a shift from feature-packed technology to a more user-centred technology; one that focuses on doing one thing, and doing it well, so that it fits in perfectly with other technologies.
