Less is More as Microsoft ponders Life beyond the PC

Designers, psychologists and computer scientists gathered at the Microsoft Research Cambridge "Less is More — Simple Computing in an Age of Complexity" forum in late April to present research looked at the rapid shift beyond the desktop PC, and in particular how to improve the people’s quality of life irrespective of their age, location or economic situation.

Keynote speaker Bill Buxton, who is visiting at Microsoft in Britain at the moment, opened the forum. The two-day forum also featured a keynote address from Scott Jenson, one of the original designers of the Apple Newton, as well as presentations by a number of researchers from throughout Europe on a variety of topics. Below are three that explore different aspects of user experience.

"When I'm eighty four: beyond safety and independence" by Andrew Monk and Mark Blythe outlined the need to move from the medically-oriented practice of keeping elderly people out of institutional care towards a user-centred focus on quality of life. While isolation has been identified as one of the major problems facing older people by Age Concern (in research from 2002), new digital communication technologies have considerable potential to reduce the problem.

"How do you turn a duck into a soul singer? Put it in the microwave until its Bill Withers: Some social features of a simple technology", by Connor Graham, Keith Cheverst, Dan Fitton and Mark Rouncefield, took a look at how certain features of texting draw upon and reflect social aspects of people’s everyday life that are essential to collaboration and coordination.

While, "I Just Clicked To Say I Love You", by Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye, presented results of a study of minimal intimate objects, or MinIOs, defined as low-bandwidth devices for communicating intimacy between couples in long-distance relationships. The findings note that the minimalist nature of the device allowed for rich and complex interpretation of an otherwise simple communication. The author suggests that piggybacking on the culturally imprinted nature of communications may serve as a model for understanding other complex uses of otherwise simple computing.

(The forum didn't insist that submitted presentations adapted a well-known song title or artist but there does seem to have been a rock-and-roll theme to the ones featured here...)

Online poker company uses Science to assess Player Preferences
Source: Recentpoker.com, 8 January 2009
 
Working with customer experience consultancy Foviance, PKR is exploiting the benefits of electroencephalography (EEG) technology to gather information on poker players' emotional relationship with a brand or service.

Do Users really love Laptops?
Source: channelinsider, 7 January 2009
 
More than one-fifth of all laptop computers will break down over the course of their life, and other limitations frustrate their users. From this list of user complaints come laptop opportunities.

User Interviews - Analysis Simplified
Source: Webcredible, 6 January 2009
 
You’ve conducted your user interviews, but now you need to make sense of all that information you’ve gathered.

Why Products Fail
Source: ComputerWorld, 5 January 2009
 
Most gadget and software makers don't understand what users want most: control.

How to Design Websites for Mobile Phones
Source: stemkoski.com, 3 January 2009
 
Tips from Ryan Stemkoski's web design blog.

Pioneer of Cyberspace honoured
Source: BBC, 2 January 2009
 
A professor who invented a forerunner of the world wide web has been made a dame in the New Year Honours.

2008 in Review: Developments that rocked the world of User Experience
Source: Catalyst Resources, 1 January 2009
 
A look back at 2008 highlights some of the key developments that rocked the world of user experience.

2008: The Year Online
Source: MIT Technology Review, 31 December 2008
 
The business of social networking, cloud computing, and a flaw in the fabric of the Internet top the most notable stories of 2008.

Shoveling through the Spamalanche
Source: UN, 30 December 2008
 
A ‘Spamalanche’ of 3,000 emails will be waiting in your inbox by the time you get back to work. What can you do besides 'delete all'?

New guidelines boost Web Access
Source: BBC, 29 December 2008
 
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people.