Contextual Interaction

Just got over with the final concept of my project! Whew!
Came across some interesting insights regarding user experience design… The principal one- as you might have already read in the previous post is that user experience design may not always be limited to ‘user’ experience design. True- in the end deliverable all the entities have to point towards a wholesome and meaningful ‘user’ experience. But the process may differ every time. This is one area where design education often loses out. Now for instance who would have thought there is something called ‘context based interaction design’?
What now on earth is this!!
To put it simply lets take the cell phone example again… Designing an application interface for a cell phone for a user is ‘user experience’ design. But say- I want to design a cell phone application specifically for a guy in New Delhi, India who is a road side vendor (Mind you- some top mobile companies see an awesome potential in this!). My user in this case does not only have his user specific needs (networking/ attracting potential customers/ updating customers on his products/ contacting wholesale dealers etc), but he also is residing in a place which has strong contextual implications. His business also depends on the context that he is placed in. Delhi is unbearably hot in summers and extremely cold in winters. It has a certain culture of people in majority with a certain taste when it comes to making a selection while shopping. They have certain living standards and language which are unique to the region. Here we are not really studying just the user. All this data comes from the context around him- i.e. the environment, the people, the culture- all that is going to have implications on his street vending! A cell phone application which aids him in his vending while catering to these contextual values will prove to be far more useful to him than a simple application based on him and his needs alone.
See my point?

System's Thinking in Interaction Design? HELP!

The complications of a process based design approach are many… Simply because its not a single entity by itself. It’s a network of sub-processes, each having its own complexity. My research is still looking for solutions out of this problem. One approach that I have come across is the approach of ‘systems thinking.’ To quote wikipedia, it is a framework that is based on the belief that the components of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation.

To understand it better, think of the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in California can cause a typhoon in China. So small changes in a complex system can result in much larger implications to the system as a whole.
Presently my project concerns an entire business enterprise and the interactions through paper happening within it. It is therefore useless to adopt a user centric approach as the question is about a number of users each performing an individual task.
Systems thinking enables me to approach a problem by looking at it holistically. By seeing it as a complex system with a number of subsystems working within it and a number of systems attached to it. Here each and every node in the organization is dependent on the other. Take for example the human body. The body is a system which has a number of subsystems like the nervous, cardiac, muscular etc. Each system is in turn interdependent on the other. Similarly, a business enterprise, where each department is interdependent. There is a lot of paper work happening to connect each department. Let me quote a simple example. Say I go to a shop to buy a mobile. I tell the shopkeeper to show me the kind of choices I have in my budget. The shopkeeper shows me the choices accompanied with price and features etc. I single out one and tell the shopkeeper to sell it to me. The shopkeeper writes out an invoice/bill for the same. After I have the mobile in my hand I pay him the money. The doorman checks my bill to make sure I have paid for my purchase and I leave the shop.
Same is within a large enterprise except that the activity in italics is all paperwork.
Now comes my question. You read the mobile purchase example. Imagine it as one ystem with a set of activities. Now how would you suggest these activities be made as simple as possible so that my purchase is as quick and simple as can be! Can I eliminate any activity which is not necessary? Can I make the the task simpler from customers or the shop keepers point of view? How can a butterfly flapping cause a change in this process? Suggestions most welcome and help desperately required!! Open to all!

What is Interaction Design?

What really is interaction design? Ranjeet Makkuni once asked me this same question. I told him that its designing the interactions between a machine and a human being. “So what would you call this?” He asks holding a flute in front of me. “Is this interaction design or not?” I look at the flute… see each and every bore and the taper at the end where the lips touch the instrument. A simple piece of bamboo. And then realization dawns. “Yes”. I admit. Suddenly this man has managed to humble my IIT ego and put forth a very simple understanding. He blew into it and few melodious notes rand out. “Look at this… is it not interaction design at its most simple and basic level? I interact with this ‘machine’ and see what comes out of it!” He smiled.
Suddenly after 6 and a half years of being a design student and trying to find the right answer for the question- this man had managed to teach me the same in a matter of 52 seconds.

The Interaction Designer's Dilemma

As an interaction designer I often face a dilemma… which path to follow… Interaction design is by now an established discipline. An established discipline means that a lot of intellectual jargon has got associated with it. Related think tanks of the subjects have already devised a set of guidelines and processes to follow and emulate.
Here comes the problem…
Designing for interaction unlike other subjects is an extremely fluid field. The designer has to face a variety of problems. And not problems may be solved through fixed categories of contextual enquiry, usability goals, heuristic analysis etc. That’s jargon, which comes useful when a person is designing a ‘user centric’ solution to a problem. But things don’t always work like that. True, interaction design should keep the human factors paramount. But sometimes to design for human factors and user centric approach fails in the face of logical problem solving. Problems are not always independent entities. They are often part of an entire process or set of events. Sometimes the best solution is not just designing for the user at each node of the process but to try and achieve an overall optimization of the process.
So what path to follow for this? What can be an ideal approach to solve such problems? Clearly the standard HCI design principles miserably fail in this context. Then what is the ideal successful problem solving approach.
Truth is, there is none. So right now all that is possible is to adopt a hybrid approach which keeps the standard principles in mind but formulates its own way through logical reasoning and careful analysis of the entire process. Subsequently identifying the key points where various users interact with the bigger picture and find out how those interactions can be made useful and more fruitful.

Lot of heavy stuff on the blog... someone asks..is it the right way to revive your blogging? No idea! All that is known is that its a perfect vent... so the words just flow... sometimes heavy and at times (like this) light.
On a personal front I did a check today, and realized am slowly turning into a wanderlust. Does being a designer do that to you? For I have found it as a very common trend amongst people like me. Is it a constant urge to get away or simply a desire to 'be in'... be in a lot of places... sometimes all at once!
Meanwhile my wanderings are calling me again...a long weekend approaches. For now I am tied to a chair and a screen, struggling to meet my deadlines... but who knows?

Traditional Architecture, Metaphors/Typologies Vis A Vis India’s Development

Time: Saturday night, circa 2007. Place: a techno polis called Gurgaon. Scenario: a family of four comfortable in their luxury condo waiting for the Mac Donald’s delivery man to come and deliver the food. The children want to go out but the slums out side would be a nightmare to negotiate through. And who would want to go out when there is no electricity on the streets which are already blinding and choking with pollution and filth; when one has fresh air being supplied by the auxiliary power plant within the complex.
Welcome to the global era. Where the new age urban dweller is a part of an iconic world. A world of glass towers, sophisticated buildings, luxury condos…. And an endless slum.
The last two decades of the twentieth century enjoyed the most spectacular prospects of the world as cold war came to an end through the breakdown of the then soviet imperialism, as well as due to the internationalization of the economic activities executed through the emergence of much admired information technology. What we better know today as globalization. Landmarks of the global era dot our landscapes all the way from Gurgaon to Bangalore and beyond. The rising glass towers and sophisticated life is a matter of pride to the new age urban dweller. The friendly neighbourhood dhaba has the smiling MacDonald’s in its place and tandoori chicken is better savored when it’s carrying the brand name of Kentucky Fried Chicken. While this omnipresence of commodities, products and technology is felt by all, one fails to notice the existence of a concealed eroding force, which has come forward as one of the biggest challenges to context based development.
It is needless to say that the very definition of architecture in this nation and the world over has undergone a change. A building that was seen as a dwelling, a shelter, a necessity, is today also serving the role of an icon, an image, an advertisement. The very urban fabric is undergoing a transformation. Alien terms such as Technology parks, Gated communities, International schools and information highways have slowly woven themselves as intricate parts of a global urban fabric. So colorful and glamorous this new packaging is that one is too mesmerized to notice the ever widening holes that are gradually appearing. Globalization has changed the rate of development and caused a transformation of cultures. Local identities are gradually losing ground and the boundaries of pluralistic heritage of India are fading into a standardized and uniform culture lacking in richness and sensitivity to its context.
Local identity needs preservation, not just for its flavor, but also for enabling local economies to survive and prosper. This identity also gives dignity and equality to the people in the face of cultural hegemony. Architecture has always been the first face of any culture. It defines a culture, its people, their lifestyles, their beliefs and aspirations. Tradition has always been with us, not just in bells of the temple and the pleats of a sari but also in the terracotta tiled roofs, jalis shimmering with sunlight and village courts with charpoys laid out.

With rapidly depleting resources due to insensitive plundering in the last decade an urgent need has arrived to look back into the past and derive lessons from it. Architectural practice should be a creative process that aims at adopting ideas that are attached to the past but rewrites them in order to suit the ever changing environment. Channa Daswatte, author of the paper ‘A Socio-political analysis of traditional building in tourism – the legacy of Geoffrey Bawa’ presented at the INTBAU conference in January, talks about the innovative use of local materials and technology by Sri Lankan architects leading to not only self sufficiency and sustainability but also the birth of an architectural practice in contemporary Sri Lanka where the use of traditional building techniques was not at odds with realizing a wholly modern architecture. What needs to be understood from this is that traditional buildings and places can offer a profound modernity beyond novelty and look forward to a better future.
The vocabulary of architecture has changed over time. But integrating it with traditional vocabularies that have acquired the experience and sensitivity of ages is necessary in order to achieve a holistic and sustainable development of the society. It is in this experience of ages the solutions to the problems faced by the degenerating urban and rural structure lie. Local architecture is an evolution of building technology suited to the respective place over ages. Hence, it is well suited to the climate of the particular place, is environmentally friendly and also cost effective as it employs local materials. Local labour and skills are well utilized in such a situation. More importantly, it should be understood that local architecture is not the brain child of an individual; it’s an outcome of the lifestyle and socio economic structure of an entire community. Hence, it is more sensitive to its aspirations and encourages the feeling of oneness and security within the community. In short, it becomes the identity of the community.
Is it then really wise to strip communities of their identities? Architects in the global era aspire to provide the human race with comfort within and outside their homes. But then how can we achieve human comfort when its very foundation is not humane? Sustainability can never be achieved unless and until it has a holistic overview. Something, the elitist global era fails to provide. Arif Kamal Mohammad, another speaker at the INTBAU conference commented that the strength of traditional architecture is that it blends buildings into various settings so that there is a natural harmony between climate, architecture and people. An architectural heritage that has survived for centuries because of geometric, technical and constructive principles that work for the society is being sadly destroyed under the guise of modernization.
Traditional architecture does have the answers for a humane and harmonious future. It always has had, it’s only that we have never realized its reaches and wealth of wisdom that have held good in the past and promise to hold good in the future as well.

Why Conform?

Why conform? In a world where categorization is the key to identity (and sanity!), where desktops to shelf tops are all conformed and categorized arrays, where even a walking talking breathing being is categorized into race, identity and boundaries; this question seems rather irrelevant. We conform because conforming is comforting. Its simpler, easier and that’s the way to be! So then lets rephrase… Why not conform?
I do not want to conform. ..Why not?
Because conforming is not limited to identity anymore. Its no longer just a tool to help me make my life easier…its become life itself. I do not want to conform because life is not meant to be conformed… it is supposed to be set free of any bounds and conformities and be allowed to explore and relish every new thing that comes across.
Today conforming has become an easier way out… a way to state your preferences and stick to them without ever finding out what would happen if I don’t. The quest for a peaceful existence has led to conforming ourselves to a mundane existence. An existence that is governed by a set of rules that we quietly follow and hope that nothing goes wrong. And when something does go wrong we have something or someone to blame for not conforming and thus causing trouble.
Imagine a world of no conformity whatsoever… total chaos! A place where no one follows any rule, no patterns and no categorizations. Each is left to explore and create his own code of existence. And in this quest where each is on his or her own journey there is everybody around doing the same…. The result is an interaction which is not governed by rules but pure basic instinct. Its raw and unrefined yet has the underlying grace of human instinct. An instinct which is more sensitized to its surroundings, born out of the unpredictability of situations around it. An instinct which is not conformed to a mundane and safe existence. An instinct which questions, understands, explores and most importantly ‘feels’.
Sounds like a twisted Utopia… an unpredictable dangerous yet tantalizing existence. Where there is only one kind of conforming, that of not conforming to anything.