Now we arrive at what are likely already core tenets in how you view the role of devices in our modern world. Could a long status message be replaced with a simple “yes” or “no” or even an indicator that is either green or red? We’re hard-wired to pay attention to the faces and voices of other people, so a spoken alert is nigh impossible to ignore. Pretending (and failing) to be human is where they cross “the best of technology and the best of humanity” line we feel somehow wronged. I suppose the best of these experiences is when the chatbot announces itself as such and is there to allow me to act like a human, using natural language to communicate with machines. When chatbots work well, they can create a delightful interface to get information without waiting on hold for a human assistant. One place where I see that happening is with chatbots. People should never be forced to act like machines. I once had a boss who would say, “tell me the time, not how the watch works.” Adding multiple calm technologies into your environment shouldn’t overwhelm you or create noise since each will remain in the periphery until needed. When we surround ourselves with technology, the purpose is what matters. The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem Technology should work even when it fails Technology can communicate, but doesn’t need to speak Technology should amplify the best of technology and the best of humanity Technology should make use of the periphery Technology should require the smallest possible amount of attention Let’s take a look at the principles of Calm Technologies from : Recent guest 2021 Mozilla Fellow, Amber Case introduced me to a concept for the design of user experiences called Calm Technology, and I immediately connected with it.
Every now and then, a guest flips the script and decides not to talk about physical tools and devices but services and even concepts. I hear the hosts Kevin Kelly and Mark Frauenfelder struggling with the same inner battle along with me each episode. I really enjoy the conversations around the choices of favorite tools that each guest brings, not to mention the challenge of not immediately buying everything they have spoken about so passionately. I am a long-time fan of Cool Tools and listen to the podcast often. Some great thinkers at Xerox PARC, the place where, among other things, the computer mouse was invented, developed principles they called Calm Technology.Īmber Case was on the Cool Tools podcast in early October talking about her new book entitled Calm Technology
The answer might not be faster or newer technology, but a 30-year-old philosophy. Our “better mousetraps” end up kludgy messes that are brittle instead of elegant and robust. It often takes too many “clicks” to accomplish simple tasks, and they end up demanding our attention. Gadgets intended to simplify our lives turn out to complicate them. So much smart-tech is really kind of dumb.
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