Interaction in a Time of
Computational Plenty
Paul Dourish
Information & Computer Science
UC Irvine
my background
• research topics
– CSCW & HCI
• computer scientist with bad influences…
• media spaces, awareness, UI architectures, CSCW
toolkits, ethnographic studies, information
management…
• research history
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Xerox Research Center Europe (EuroPARC)
Apple Computer
Computer Science Lab @ Xerox PARC
Information & Computer Science @ UCI
what do these have in common?
what’s the difference?
premise
• everyday computer use is like archeology
– the 1970’s…
• menus, windows, icons
– or worse…!
• dialog
• commands
• representation and structure
– regular
– predefined
– uniform
moore’s law
moore’s law
• for years, performance has driven applications
• for apps today, performance is nearly irrelevant
– word processing doesn’t require 1.4GHz
• it’s only going to continue
– ready for 4x performance in 3 years?
– 80% of cycles to the UI
– animated windows? or time for a new approach?
• three ideas…
placeless documents
• personal & workgroup document collections
– no fixed hierarchies or structures
placeless documents
• personal & workgroup document collections
– no fixed hierarchies or structures
H:\dourish\inprogress\talks\tecfa\presto.ppt
Type = talk
Author = dourish
Status = in progress
Backup = true
Topic = presto
Format = Powerpoint
Forum = tecfa
placeless documents
• personal & workgroup document collections
– no fixed hierarchies or structures
– documents and properties
– do away with predefined structure
• systems today are fast enough to create structure when
we need it
• creating structures depending on circumstance
– who’s looking (individual or group)
– what they’re doing (task or role)
– which documents are at hand
example
Filing Problems
So there’s all these categories it could
conceivably go under and I have to pick one.
[…] certainly my assessment may be different
than the guy next aisle over.
Filing Problems
Ok now I don’t see what I thought I was looking
for. So, uhm, I guess I would stick it under uh
Floodplain Evaluations. What was the other spot?
Drainage is usually done during the design phase
and we’re not there yet. So that’s why I would
pick, uhm, but see 231 is Draft Environmental
Document which is pretty vague. So I’ll never
find it. It’s just not going to happen. I’d probably
be more inclined to stick it under Drainage even
though that’s not where it belongs? So that’s
what I’m going to do.
mutual intelligibility
UFS
Proj1
Group A
Proj2
Group B
Joe
Proj3
Bob
mutual intelligibility
UFS
Proj1
Group A
Proj2
Group B
Joe
Proj3
Bob
visualisation
• information visualisation
– graphical representations of complex information
– moving work from the cognitive to the perceptual
• visualisation as part of everyday interfaces
– software systems are complex
• most of the complexity is hidden
• in fact, we’re afraid to present it
– the physical world is comprehensible
• you can see it work
• how about doing the same for software?
visualisation
• security in networked systems
– security people look for absolute security
– normal users look for acceptable risk
• but we don’t give people the resources to determine
whether the current risk is acceptable or not
visualisation
• security in networked systems
– security people look for absolute security
– normal users look for acceptable risk
UC Irvine
tecfa
• but we don’t give people the resources to determine
whether the current risk is acceptable or not
visualisation
• making system structure visible
– more, making it visible as a part of interaction
– co-displays visualise mechanism
– theoretical grounding
• ethnomethodological understandings of work
• the accountability of system action
embodied interaction
• a broader view of new interaction styles
– tangible computing
– social computing
– a common foundation: embodiment
• embodiment is about…
– how you encounter technology
– how meaning and practice are interrelated
embodied interaction
• tying together two ideas
– ubiquitous/tangible computing
• “beyond the desktop” – computation embodied in the world
– social computing
• using sociological theory for more than requirements
– these ideas have a common foundation: embodiment
embodied interaction
• meaning and practice
– “practice is, first and foremost, a process by which
we can experience the world and our
engagement with it as meaningful” (Etienne
Wenger)
– practice involves creating and sharing meaning
• creating meaning  the emergence of practice
• practice is a primary focus for HCI and CSCW
– so, a primary technical concern is to support the
emergence of practice
tools for evolving practice
• new opportunities
– technology gets more powerful daily
• use this power to transform our model of interaction
– the old model
• fixed structures for information and interaction
• people adapt to the way that technology is designed
– the new model
• present information in ways that make sense dynamically
• let people adapt their interaction styles to circumstances
• technology and interaction are mutually constituted