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November 8, 2005
Special thank you to the Design Club
I've been kicking around the idea of implementing some sort of awareness system for our lovely tower of power over here at Eigenmann. After talking to Yvonne and seeing Paul Dourish's talk on Place and Space, I think it would be a good exercise and could even evolve into a publishable experiment.
I've seen several of these sorts of systems published, but all of them seem to involve simply putting a microphone, camera, and display at everyone's workstation, or placing a shared display device out in the lobby or in the coffee room. I think a lot more can be done, and I think the way to go is with some sort of ambient device.
The problem with the microphone/camera enabled workstations is that people don't really like to feel that they are being monitored, so they usually just turn off the mic, or cover the camera with a post-it note. In the situations where a shared display is placed in a public place, people usually mark it as a novelty and never really use it.
I think that an ambient device will work nicely because its not something people need to actively think to use or monitor, it can be something mounted on a wall or sitting on a desk in each user's office that just changes slightly depending on the information its given.
The Design Club came up with several possible solutions. The one that seems to have some real possibilities is the idea of an ambient waterfall device, that is somewhat in the shape of the floor plan of the building. Erik P. came up with a very interesting sketch of how it would look and even how it could work. I think this device works on several different levels. (1) It provides visual and audio ambient output. One can look at it and get an idea of which areas are being occupied, and the more areas occupied will cause a variation in the trickling sound the water makes. (2) It will be visually interesting. If we are going to convince several faculty and staff members to keep one of these in their offices, we have to make sure its something they would really want in their offices. (3) It is not invasive. It is easy to ignore, and it should not make people feel as though they are being monitored. The device will not tell you who-is-where, but it will tell you that some person is in a particular space. That alone will give people a feeling that they are not completely sequestered in this building. It is my thought that people will be more inclined to stay focused if they feel they are in a place that is buzzing with lots of other busy people.
I don't know where Erik put his sketch, but eventually I'll add it to this post. I hope that this project can continue so I'll need to get started on some literature review, and even though we feel like we have a pretty good idea, we need to explore other alternatives. That is fine however, because I had a good time debating along with these bright students.
Posted by whazlewo at 7:12 PM | Comments (0)