The Human Interface

The Human Interface Christopher Fahey graphpaper.com @chrisfahey #ixd10 #human

ROBOTS?

I HATE ROBOTS!

PYGMALION

THE REPLACEMENTS

CYBORGS?

”As our worlds become smarter, and get to know us better and better, it becomes harder and harder to say where the world stops and the person begins.” - Andy Clarke, “Natural Born Cyborgs”

THE UNCANNY VALLEY (Masahiro Mori)

The Uncanny Valley

The Uncanny Valley (How comfortable ACCEPTANCE we feel around the machine.) FIDELITY (How well the machine mimics human characteristics.)

The Uncanny Valley

Lessons so far: 1. Don’t replace humans. 2. Don’t replicate humans.

Origins

What childhood experiences most powerfully influence your approach to interaction design today?

Childhood IxD Experiences 1. Taking things apart to see how they work 2. Fixing broken things 3. Creating little worlds

Why? 1. Interaction design is a creative form. UX designers want to use technology and design to create emotional, imaginative, and deeply human experiences.

Why? 1. Interaction design is a creative form. UX designers want to use technology and design to create emotional, imaginative, and deeply human experiences. 2. Change is in the air. New technologies are converging to permit new and more compelling interactions.

New Technologies Image recognition Touch Voice recognition Gesture

New Technologies

Not so new

About the “Human Interface”

“An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and is considerate of human frailties.” - Jef Raskin, “The Humane Interface”

“Design can be easier when we acknowledge that products share our homes and malls, and have wants and lives of their own.” - Matt Webb, BERG

“If we want users to like our software, we should design it to behave like a likeable person.” - Alan Cooper

We make better products when we think of them as human beings.

“The role of technology is to mirror our humanness. We were born with everything we need: good technology reminds us of that.” - Jack Dorsey (@jack), CEO Twitter

The Human Interface... ... is about persuasion and seduction ... is smart and has awareness ... is physical, embodied ... is linguistic, poetic, and narrative ... is emotional and feeling ... has a name and an identity ... has a personality

“Want to know what I think the next UI break- throughs will be? Here are two, both of which can be considered a return to fundamentals: 1. Command line languages; 2. Physicality: the return to physical devices, where we control things by physical body movement, by turning, moving, and manipulating appropriate mechanical devices.” - Don Norman, 2007

The Human Interface

The Human Interface Literally, it’s about the ergonomics of the body and the mind.

The Human Interface Literally, it’s about the ergonomics of the body and the mind. Metaphorically, it’s about removing abstraction from interactions

Lessons so far: 1. Don’t replace humans. 2. Don’t replicate humans.

Lessons so far: 1. Don’t replace humans. 2. Don’t replicate humans. How?

Lessons so far: 1. Don’t replace humans. 2. Don’t replicate humans. How? Behavior!

Lessons so far: Not about mimicking human behavior, but about reflecting it. Software that mirrors behavior: • Chat and IM reflect the immediacy of communication • Social networks mirror the structure of the special primacy we give our own friends (vs. everyone else) • Twitter reflects the semi-social “cocktail party” model of social interaction.

Paul Dourish: “Where the Action Is”

Reeves & Nass: “The Media Equation”

Ergonomics for the Mind (cups designed by the “other” Masahiro Mori)

Anthopomorphism

Human-ness

Human-ness (Christopher Alexander) The Quality Without a Name (QWAN) aka The Phenomenon of Life

Human-ness (Christopher Alexander) 1. Levels of Scale Fifteen 2. Strong Centers 3. Thick Boundaries Properties 4. Alternating Repetition 5. Positive Space of Living 6. Good Shape Structures 7. Local Symmetries 8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity 9. Contrast 10. Gradients 11. Roughness 12. Echoes 13. The Void 14. Simplicity and Inner Calm 15. Non-Separateness

Katherine Isbister: Better Game Characters by Design

Human-ness (Katherine Isbister) External Internal Characteristics of Characteristics of Personhood Personhood • Bodies • Agreeableness • Faces • Dominance • Voices • Openness • Conscientiousness • Neuroticism

The Three Qualia of the Human Interface

Three Qualia of the Human Interface: Sentience Intimacy Personality

Sentience

Sentience: The ability to feel or perceive subjectively. The system is able to collect robust sensory data from the world, and make sense of that data.

The Human Sensorium

Voice Recognition

Image and Face Recognition

Nintendo Wii

Not always robust Not all sensory data need be robust to a system to make extremely intelligent deductions from the data.

Project Natal (Microsoft)

Artificial Intelligences

The Uncanny Valley: Sentience

The Uncanny Valley: Sentience Creepy stalker

The Uncanny Valley: Sentience Observant and conscientious Creepy stalker

Intimacy

2. Intimacy: The quality of being close, comfortable, and familiar. The system can interface with humans extremely closely, up close and personal, and with our glad consent.

Intimacy Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines: • Emotional Intelligence • Proximity • Presence • Social Web • Personal Informatics • Multiplayer Games • Real Time Web • Conversations

Machines that talk back

Conversations

Dialogue! Dialog? Conversations

Politeness Clifford Nass: “Design solutions are often social solutions.” Tom Armitage: “The applications and tools we are building are, whether we like it or not, defining the manners of the web today. We should be careful to consider the behaviors we wish to reinforce, and those we don't.”

Politeness • Don't reject • Don't interrupt • Say hello and goodbye • Use someone's name • Look people in the eye • Respond in kind • Respect differences

Politeness Praise Conversations

Identity

“You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank, you're not the car you drive, you're not the contents of your wallet, you're not your fucking khakis.” - Tyler Durden, “Fight Club”

“You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank, you're not the car you drive, you're not the contents of your wallet, you're not your fucking khakis.” No! You are your fucking khakis! - Tyler Durden, “Fight Club”

Personality

Personality: The sum of an individual person’s mental, emotional, behavioral, and social characteristics. The system has a distinctive character, with recognizable human cultural and psychological behaviors.

We see faces

Facial Fidelity

The Uncanny Valley: Faces

Personality Characteristics

The Four Humours

Myers-Briggs

Interpersonal Circumplex

Interpersonal Circumplex Agreeableness (Communion) Dominance (Agency)

Interpersonal Circumplex

Voice

Voice = Content Strategy

Personality Characters: • More than personality: Culture, Style • Casting • Names • Personas • Storytelling and Themes

What’s in a Name Maximillian Linus

The Uncanny Valley: Names Bob, Jeeves

The Uncanny Valley: Names Bob, Jeeves TiVo, iPhone

Personality Characters: • More than personality: Culture, Style • Casting • Names • Personas • Storytelling and Themes

Brands

Broken Personalities

Conclusions

The Human Interface

The Uncanny Valley Unthreatening Appearance Annoying Personality

Things to try • Use pronouns for your product: he, she. • Give your application a name • Do more visceral prototypes, things that have weight and that you can touch. • Collaborate with new disciplines • Go to a different field’s conference. Go to the Game Developer’s Conference, or to SIGGRAPH. • Tell more stories! Bring character-driven screenwriting and dramaturgy to your experience design.

If we don’t humanize our products, our products will mechanize us.

Thanks! Christopher Fahey @chrisfahey #ixd10 #human graphpaper.com