Designing for Emerging Technologies

Designing for Emerging Technologies

by Jonathan Follett
Released November 2014
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449370510

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Book description

The recent digital and mobile revolutions are a minor blip compared to the next wave of technological change, as everything from robot swarms to skin-top embeddable computers and bio printable organs start appearing in coming years. In this collection of inspiring essays, designers, engineers, and researchers discuss their approaches to experience design for groundbreaking technologies.

Design not only provides the framework for how technology works and how it’s used, but also places it in a broader context that includes the total ecosystem with which it interacts and the possibility of unintended consequences. If you’re a UX designer or engineer open to complexity and dissonant ideas, this book is a revelation.

Contributors include:

  • Stephen Anderson, PoetPainter, LLC
  • Lisa Caldwell, Brazen UX
  • Martin Charlier, Independent Design Consultant
  • Jeff Faneuff, Carbonite
  • Andy Goodman, Fjord US
  • Camille Goudeseune, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Bill Hartman, Essential Design
  • Steven Keating, MIT Media Lab, Mediated Matter Group
  • Brook Kennedy, Virginia Tech
  • Dirk Knemeyer, Involution Studios
  • Barry Kudrowitz, University of Minnesota
  • Gershom Kutliroff, Omek Studio at Intel
  • Michal Levin, Google
  • Matt Nish-Lapidus, Normative
  • Erin Rae Hoffer, Autodesk
  • Marco Righetto, SumAll
  • Juhan Sonin, Involution Studios
  • Scott Stropkay, Essential Design
  • Scott Sullivan, Adaptive Path
  • Hunter Whitney, Hunter Whitney and Associates, Inc.
  • Yaron Yanai, Omek Studio at Intel

Publisher resources

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Table of contents

  1. List of Contributors
  2. Foreword
  3. Preface
    1. Why We Wrote This Book
      1. Who Should Read This Book
    2. How This Book Is Organized
    3. Chapters Organized By Subject Area
      1. 3D printing/additive fabrication
      2. The evolution of the design field
      3. Genomics and synthetic biology
      4. The Internet of Things/connected environments
      5. Product design
      6. Robotics
      7. Visualization
      8. Wearable Technology
    4. Safari® Books Online
    5. How to Contact Us
    6. Acknowledgments
  4. 1. Designing for Emerging Technologies
    1. A Call to Arms
    2. Design for Disruption
      1. The IoT, Connected Environments, and Wearable Technology
      2. Robotics
      3. 3D Printing
      4. Genomics and Synthetic Biology
    3. Eight Design Tenets for Emerging Technology
      1. 1. Identify the Problems Correctly
      2. 2. Learn Constantly
      3. 3. Think Systemically
      4. 4. Work at a Variety of Scales
      5. 5. Connect People and Technology
      6. 6. Provoke and Facilitate Change
      7. 7. Work Effectively on Cross-Disciplinary Teams
      8. 8. Take Risks, Responsibly
    4. Changing Design and Designing Change
  5. 2. Intelligent Materials: Designing Material Behavior
    1. Bits and Atoms
      1. Inspired by Nature at a Small Scale: Material Properties from MicroTextures
    2. Emerging Frontiers in Additive Manufacturing
    3. Micro Manufacturing
    4. Dynamic Structures and Programmable Matter
    5. Connecting the Dots: What Does Intelligent Matter Mean for Designers?
      1. Designing Material Behaviors
        1. Rainwater management in civic spaces and building exteriors
        2. Building interior spaces and water management
      2. Designing Modes for Physical Products
      3. Designing Physical Behaviors in Physical Products
    6. Conclusion
  6. 3. Taking Control of Gesture Interaction
    1. Reinventing the User Experience
    2. Analysis
    3. Prototyping
    4. A Case Study: Gesture Control
      1. Feedback
      2. Scrolling and Zooming
      3. Selection: The Smart Pointer
      4. User Fatigue and the Arc Menu
    5. Trade-offs
    6. Looking Ahead
  7. 4. Fashion with Function: Designing for Wearables
    1. The Next Big Wave in Technology
    2. The Wearables Market Segments
    3. Wearables Are Not Alone
    4. UX (and Human) Factors to Consider
      1. Visibility
      2. Role
      3. Display On-Device
        1. No display
        2. Minimal output display (LED-based)
        3. Full interactive display
          1. Small display size
          2. Mix of interaction patterns
          3. Direct versus indirect manipulation
          4. Separate versus integrated visual field display
          5. Level of control on the display
      4. The Interaction Model
        1. Multimodal interaction
          1. Output
          2. Input
        2. Multi-device Interaction
    5. Summary
  8. 5. Learning and Thinking with Things
    1. Tangible Interfaces
      1. Kanban Walls, Chess, and Other Tangible Interactions
      2. Manipulatives in Education
      3. Virtual Manipulatives
      4. Embodied Learning
    2. (Near) Future Technology
      1. Thinking with Things, Today!
        1. Sifteo Cubes
        2. Motion Math
        3. GameDesk
    3. Timeless Design Principles?
      1. Cylinder Blocks: Good Learning Objects
        1. Case Study: An appcessory for early math concepts
    4. Farther Out, a Malleable Future
    5. Nothing New Under the Sun
    6. Closing
  9. 6. Designing for Collaborative Robotics
    1. Introduction
    2. Designing Safety Systems for Robots
      1. The Safety Framework
        1. Awareness
        2. Fault tolerance
        3. Explicit communication
      2. Developing Social Skills
        1. Physical appearance
        2. Acknowledgement of people
        3. Behavioral cues and body language
    3. Humanlike Robots
    4. Human-Robot Collaboration
      1. Developing Real-World Collaboration Solutions
        1. Fit to task and customization
        2. Consistent behavior and fluid motion
        3. Natural feedback and adaptive behavior
        4. Environmental awareness
    5. Testing Designs by Using Robotics Platforms
      1. Evaluating Designs by Using Real Platforms
      2. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio
    6. Future Challenges for Robots Helping People
    7. Conclusion
    8. Robotics Resources
  10. 7. Design Takes on New Dimensions: Evolving Visualization Approaches for Neuroscience and Cosmology
    1. The Brain Is Wider Than the Sky
    2. Section 1: An Expanding Palette for Visualization
      1. Entering Another Dimension
      2. Pixels and Voxels
      3. 3D Fluency
      4. Visualizing Vastness
      5. Embracing Uncertainty and Constraints
    3. Section 2: Visualizing Scientific Models (Some Assembly Required)
      1. Tinkering in the Model Shop
      2. Simplicity and Prediction
      3. Examples from the yt Project
    4. Section 3: Evolving Tools, Processes, and Interactions
      1. Observatories of the Brain
      2. Kicking the Tires of Convergence
      3. Machine Learning and Human Communication
      4. Lateral Thinking and Cross-Disciplinary Teams
      5. Game Mechanics and Winning Teams
    5. Conclusion
  11. 8. Embeddables: The Next Evolution of Wearable Tech
    1. Technology That Gets Under Your Skin
    2. Permeable Beings: The History of Body Modification
    3. Decoration, Meaning, and Communication
      1. Marking the Skin
      2. Puncturing the Flesh
      3. Reshaping the Body
      4. The Future of Body Decoration
      5. Screens and Indicators on Skin
      6. Screening Out the World
    4. Optimization and Repair
      1. Stopping the Clock
      2. The Artificial Body
    5. The Extended Human
      1. The Mother of All Demos
      2. A Predictive World, a World of Sensors
      3. Embedded Tech Brings a New Language of Interaction
        1. Immersive displays
        2. Skin-top computer
        3. Thought control
      4. What Will It Be Like to Live in the Embedded World?
    6. Just Science Fiction, Right?
    7. Key Questions to Consider
  12. 9. Prototyping Interactive Objects
    1. Misconceptions Surrounding Designers Learning to Code
      1. Sketching with Code
      2. Processing and Arduino
      3. Case Study: Capybara
      4. Losing the Wires
      5. Going to Beta Testing
      6. Tracking Pixels
      7. It’s Not Easy, But You Can Do It
  13. 10. Emerging Technology and Toy Design
    1. The Challenge of Toy Design
    2. Toys and the S-Curve
    3. Toys and Intellectual Property
    4. Emerging Technologies in Toy Design
      1. Emerging Technology Accessories
      2. Simple and Affordable Emerging “Technology”
    5. Inherently Playful Technology
    6. Sensors and Toy Design
    7. Emerging Technology in Production and Manufacturing
      1. Suggestions for Designing Toys with Emerging Technology
    8. Summary
  14. 11. Musical Instrument Design
    1. Experience Design and Musical Instruments
    2. The Evolution of the Musician
      1. The New Instrument
      2. The Curse of Flexibility
      3. Emerging Technology: Computation, Sensors, and Audio Synthesis
      4. Designing for Software Instruments: from Gestures, through Mapping, to Sound
      5. Aspects of Mappings
        1. Consistency
        2. Continuity
        3. Coherence
    3. Conclusion
  15. 12. Design for Life
    1. Bloodletting to Bloodless
    2. The Surveillance Invasion
    3. Life First—Health a Distant Second
    4. Stage Zero Detection
    5. From Protein to Pixel to Policy
    6. Final Thoughts
  16. 13. Architecture as Interface: Advocating a Hybrid Design Approach for Interconnected Environments
    1. The Blur of Interconnected Environments
      1. Design Traditions from Architecture
      2. Architectural Design Theory: Models of Interaction and Meaning
    2. Theorizing Digital Culture: New Models of Convergence
      1. Enter Interconnected Environments
    3. Hybrid Design Practice
      1. Trapelo Road Case Study
      2. Human to Machine, Machine to Machine
      3. Emerging Models of Convergent Design
    4. Changing Definitions of Space
    5. A Framework for Interconnected Environments
      1. Modes of Interaction
    6. Spheres of Inquiry
    7. An Exercise in Hybrid Design Practice
    8. Architecture as Interface
    9. Conclusion
    10. References
  17. 14. Design for the Networked World: A Practice for the Twenty-First Century
    1. The Future of Design
    2. New Environment, New Materials
      1. Happenings, Conversations, and Exploration
      2. Twenty-First Century Foundation
        1. Texture
        2. Agency
        3. Opacity
        4. Reflexivity
    3. New Tools for a New Craft
      1. Experiment
      2. Learn new skills
      3. Be critical
      4. Making the Future in Which We Want to Live
  18. 15. New Responsibilities of the Design Discipline: A Critical Counterweight to the Coming Technologies?
    1. Critiquing Emerging Technology
      1. Design Is About People
      2. What Constitutes a Better Product?
    2. Emerging Technologies
      1. The Designer As Technology Critic
        1. 1. Humanizing emerging technologies
        2. 2. Publicizing implications in understandable ways
        3. 3. Influencing the scientific community
    3. New Responsibilities of the Design Discipline
    4. Bibliography
  19. 16. Designing Human-Robot Relationships
    1. Me Man, You Robot: Designers Creating Powerful Tools
      1. The Origins of Robots
      2. Robotic Social Cues
      3. The Consequences of Increasing Intelligence
    2. Me Man, You Robot? Developing Emotional Relationships with Robots
      1. Your Robot Relationship
      2. Questions to Consider
    3. Me Robot? On Becoming Robotic
    4. Into the Future
    5. Your Robot: Consider Nielsen, Maslow, and Aristotle
    6. Conclusion
  20. 17. Tales from the Crick: Experiences and Services When Design Fiction Meets Synthetic Biology
    1. Design Fictions as a Speculative Tool to Widen the Understanding of Technology
    2. The Building Bricks of the Debate
      1. Clothing and Fashion: Goose-Bump Coats and Other Synbio Perks
      2. The Moving Definition of Nature in a Synbio World: The Agricultural Example
    3. Healthcare Narratives: From Scenarios to Societal Debates
      1. Treatment Scenarios
      2. Scenarios of Enhancements
      3. A Debate on What’s Fair
      4. A Debate on What’s Left
    4. Living Objects: Symbiotic Indispensable Companions
  21. 18. Beyond 3D Printing: The New Dimensions of Additive Fabrication
    1. MIT and the Mediated Matter Group: Previous and Current Additive Fabrication Research
    2. The Dimensions of Additive Fabrication
      1. Spatial Dimensions
        1. Macro-scale dimension
        2. Digital construction platform
        3. Informed fabrication
        4. Benefits of digital construction
        5. Micro-scale dimension
        6. Microfluidic devices
      2. Material Dimensions
        1. Multimaterial printing
        2. Material tunability
      3. Temporal Dimensions
        1. Digital biological fabrication
    3. Conclusion
      1. Acknowledgments
      2. References
  22. 19. Become an Expert at Becoming an Expert
    1. Into the Fire
    2. Eating the Elephant
      1. What Do I Need to Know?
        1. What’s the project?
        2. What’s the domain?
        3. What’s the technology?
        4. Parlez-vous français?
        5. A lingo-to-English dictionary
      2. Where Do I Go for My Research?
        1. People
        2. Product
        3. Publications
      3. Stop!
    3. Onward
  23. 20. The Changing Role of Design
    1. On the Impact of Emerging Technologies
      1. The Changing Role of Design
    2. Design Complexity and Emerging Technologies
    3. Design Trends for Emerging Technologies
      1. Engineers as Visionaries and Creators
      2. Designers as Engineers
      3. Engineers as Scientists
    4. User Experience: Finding Its Level
    5. The Future for Me, the Future for You
  24. A. Companies, Products, and Links
  25. B. About the Authors
  26. C. Designing for Emerging Technologies
  27. Index
  28. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Designing for Emerging Technologies
  • Author(s): Jonathan Follett
  • Release date: November 2014
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449370510