Update: Also known as Useful Landmines in the 43 Folders world – thanks Pantufla! Mistake-proofing – poka-yoke – can be as simple as encouraging/forcing yourself to do things in a sequence, to avoid forgetting or avoiding intermediate steps. If you’re the sort of person who […]
Yearly archives of “2008”
Persuasive 2008
I’m pleased to say that I’ll be presenting a short paper, Design With Intent: Persuasive Technology in a Wider Context* at Persuasive 2008, the 3rd International Conference on Persuasive Technology, taking place from June 4th-6th in Oulu, Finland. The paper’s a (very) brief introductory review […]
Mosquito controversy goes high-profile
The Mosquito anti-teenager sound device, which we’ve covered on this site a few times, was yesterday heavily criticised by the Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, launching the BUZZ OFF campaign in conjunction with Liberty and the National Youth Agency: Makers and users of […]
Making users more efficient: Design for sustainable behaviour
I’m pleased to say that a paper I wrote earlier this year has been accepted by the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, a new journal based at Loughborough University. The publishers (Taylor & Francis) allow authors to post a preprint* version online, so here it […]
Apologies for the delay to this service
You’re owed an apology, dear reader, for the 2-month hiatus with the blog. It’s down to a variety of reasons compounding each other, and alternately forcing me to prioritise other pressing problems, then when I tried seizing the initiative again, frustrating me with technical issues […]
Design with Intent links 2008-04-23
Design for Service Jeff Howard’s Design for Service blog – some very clear perspectives on this increasingly important way of looking at much everyday interaction design (tags: architecturesofcontrol, design service servicedesign designwithintent interaction interactiondesign) Seth Godin: The world’s worst toaster Understanding how people actually use […]
links for 2008-04-25
Flickr: The Desire Paths Pool Google may be a database of intentions; ‘desire paths’ are the record of user intentions which in some way conflict with what the designers intended… (tags: desire paths desirepaths design architecture built environment inention intent) Brian Burns’ presentation on ‘Newness […]
links for 2008-04-26
The Psychology of Security – Bruce Schneier Succinct analysis. The section on heuristics and biases affecting user decisions is particularly relevant to the Design with Intent research. (tags: schneier cognitivebias security risk heuristics)
Design-Behaviour website launched
Loughborough’s Dr Debra Lilley, who has done extensive research into designing for behavioural change, has just launched an excellent new website, Design-Behaviour, which brings together her research findings and some great examples of behaviour-changing products from different fields to illustrate the approaches identified. The site […]
links for 2008-05-01
Welsh couple cop Mosquito flak – The Register Discriminatory atmospherics (tags: mosquito discriminatoryatmospherics atmospherics soundweapon humanrights) Volvo gearchange indicator light Some Volvos were offered with an optional gearchange indicator, illuminating at the most efficient moment for the driver to change up a gear, based on […]
Interesting parallels
Security is about preventing adverse consequences from the intentional and unwarranted actions of others. What this definition basically means is that we want people to behave in a certain way… and security is a way of ensuring that they do so. Bruce Schneier, Beyond Fear […]
Chute the messenger
This is a communal rubbish chute serving a block of flats. The cross-sectional area of the aperture revealed by opening the hatch should be smaller than the cross-sectional area of the chute itself, so there’s less chance of rubbish bags getting stuck, even when someone […]