CHI 2010: Messy Futures: Culture, Technology and Research

Messy Futures: Culture, Technology and Research - via Ashley @ Chi2010

Genevieve Bell, Intel Dir of User Experience

Real consumers = mess + clutter. Devices compete for attention.

What does future hold?  Books will be legacy artifact (past, present, future)

Shifts: demographic, technical, practice

Demographic Shifts 5 – 10 years change landscape

(1)     Changing nature of places we live. 2025: 75% will be living in cities. Smaller houses, high density occupation, 2/3s have shared walls – raises issues for wireless networking.

(2)     Diminishing family size

(3)     Asian population growth – by 2020 half will be baby boomers

(4)     Populations aging, shifting where wealth is.

Technical Shifts

(1)     Only 20% of Internet users are American.  This means a great number of non-Americans are bringing new ways to view information, think about things

(2)     Consumers more likely to surf certain sites while watching TV – e.g. Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Yahoo Mail, YouTube, MSN Windows Live

Rateyournetworkdiagram.com
(3) Increased network complexity – convergence didn’t happen; there is not one device to rule them all.  How can HCI help users manage complexity?

New anxieties:

(1)     privacy … now about: what you’re really doing e.g. devices talk to each other + auto-populate your facebook and twitter status updates with what you’re watching on TV.  Anxiety is about reputation, image, authenticity, trust.

New set of socio-technical anxieties emerging

Implications for research:
a new set of research directions, objects of study, possible questions and theoretical tools
areas where humans are deeply engaged, strong role for technology, areas to explore:

(1)     religion continues to be one of the single most important things in people’s lives. 80% of people n planet are religious (text wailing wall in Jerusalem, “secret archives” button on Vatican website, people giving up text for Lent, debate in NY – what is relationship between iphones and Sabbath? Using mobile phones to orient yourself toward mecca

(2)     government. Challenges about internet time vs. government time (response time to emails, for example)

(3)     Sex. Proliferation of images. What does it mean for people’s notions about self?

(4)     Sports. Driver of new technology options (e.g. Americans buying HD TVs), now: new video capture, 3D.  Fantasy sports online. No one is writing about it.

(5)     Manners + etiquette about technology.  Changing notions about where tech should be used, by whom (e.g. not using phone in church, but ok to use in bathroom). Choices in vacation time (e.g. go somewhere where it’s a dead zone and you can’t get connected).  Linguistically we don’t have the language to talk about it – lang only addresses what they are not doing (unconnected, on wrong side of digital divide). US = 20% aren’t online or online regularly.

(6)     Gender. One of most pop apps for men is called PMS buddy (track up to 5 women simultaneously – these are the times to avoid these women!!). Pop apps for women – calendars for “aunt flo”. Profoundly different ideas at play at same phenomena for diff audiences.  Talk about App store – how would we read this thru a critical lens (or a feminist lens, etc.)

What are our research agendas? Co-interlocutors? Challenges? Barriers? And obligations?