The Reinvention of the Appliance Design Conference

Last year, UN featured the "2AD" conference, partly because there were some interesting user-centred design processes described over its three days and partly because the event itself had an interesting design (see UN story: The Shape of Conferences to Come? for more.)

So this year, it's "3AD": again taking place at the HP Labs in Bristol, UK, and again concentrating on appliance design, but here, unlike most conference series, the similarity begins to end.

Peter Thomas is the man behind the event. He himself is also in the process of reinvention: since 2AD, he has moved from the UK to Australia and set up a 'customer-centered innovation business' called CareyThomas with partner Rachel Carey. Here he explains where these changes have come from and where it's all going.

'The AD conference is an interesting thing. It's been going three years and came out of a grant from the EPSRC to build a network around appliance technologies. Quite early on we decided that simply holding a series of meetings and having a newsletter wouldn't really work - and perhaps it never has worked very well as a means of community-building - and so we developed the journal "ApplianceDesign" and the AD conference. What we have found with both of these things is that things shift very rapidly. At 1AD, we had in our heads a view of what 'appliance design' might mean - essentially a community researching and building highly-networked, single function easy-to-use devices. Over the last three years we have seen increasingly varied types of work being submitted for the event, until this year we have contributions as disparate as interactive panoramas and design strategies for interactive systems.'

Thomas reckons that some shift was inevitable. 'I guess this is a function of introducing a new term and a new activity to the community and seeing who it resonates with - we have had some of the same folks coming back but also lots of new folks joining in. We saw the same kind of phenomenon when we launched the "Personal Technologies" journal around 10 years ago. After seven years, it became "Personal and Ubiquitous Computing".'

Ultimately, what's important to him is that there are interesting discussions taking place. He is not too worried about whether something is or isn't appliance design. He sees himself providing space for developments in the field, allowing the people who participate to shape it. Which is not to say that conference attendees are given a blank sheet: last year, 2AD innovatively featured an 'appliance bazaar' with hands-on stalls for a day instead of the usual tell-and-show conference fare. That is not the kind of shaping that gets done by happenstance. Thomas is interested in event design.

'This year we have shortened the event to two days, from three. We have fewer research papers - only six - which we think is a good thing, and has meant we can be very selective; we have shifted the emphasis onto the appliance bazaar - the exhibition and learning forum we tried out last year. We have also asked Pieter Jan Stappers and Bill Gaver to do something we are calling 'design colloquia' - essentially large interactive workshops, which are rolled into the conference programme instead of sitting alongside it at extra costs to delegates. We are also holding a design competition - we had lots of worldwide entries for the event and have shortlisted nine of them for judging. So I guess you can say it almost a different event from last year - certainly in format – but it's interesting to see that lots of folks who joined in last year have come back.'

In the same spirit, Thomas doesn't see the conference going on forever. 'We try and judge the level of interest at the events and do something a bit different each time. So it could be that there will be no 4AD, or a different kind of 4AD or it might turn into something else entirely.'

And his views on more conventional conferences are strong too: 'I do think that smaller events that have international reach are much more effective than huge behemoths of conferences - which require vast conference committees and excessive levels of bureaucracy - in engaging people in real discussions. I would encourage people who want to explore new directions to start with an international conference series, rather than a workshop or meeting, to get some wider exposure.'

The third International Conference on Appliance Design (3AD) is taking place in Bristol, UK, on June 28th and 29th 2005.

Peter Thomas is also a fellow at Melbourne University, Australia, in the Information Systems Department, and a visiting Professor at Brunel University in the UK.

Associated Link: Third International Conference on Appliance Design (3AD)

New Report: Innovative Marketing in the Digital World
Source: E-consultancy, 7 October 2008
 
A new report from E-consultancy provides a distillation of ideas and suggestions provided by digital marketing experts.

Linking Industry with Academia
Source: unknown, 6 October 2008
 
Customer experience research consultancy, fhios, based in London, has just launched an innovative internship programme, aimed primarily at postgraduate students.

Online Travel Booking: What influences Consumers?
Source: Webcredible, 4 October 2008
 
What influences consumers when booking a holiday? How can travel companies offer the best user experience?

Getting the Word out
Source: UN, 3 October 2008
 
I SAID, I'M ON THE TRAIN... Voice recognition technology can now translate all those pesky garbled voicemails into manageable text messages.

Mobile hardware outpaces Software and User Capabilities
Source: ComputerWorld, 2 October 2008
 
The main issue dissuading users from employing all the capabilities of their mobile devices is the complexity involved in operating them.

Gesturing, not Drowning
Source: UN, 1 October 2008
 
The newly launched Gyration Air Mouse with MotionSense technology is designed to work in the air or on a flat surface.

Usability as an ERP Selection Criteria
Source: TechWorld, 30 September 2008
 
What careth big hairy Enterprise Resource Planning for usability? More than you might imagine.

Expert Q&A: The Latest Thinking on Computer-Related Pain
Source: NY Times via Ergonomics in the News, 29 September 2008
 
Controversy continues over whether typing on a computer could cause repetitive strain injuries of the hand, arm and shoulder. Has that debate been settled?

Talking Websites could Improve Sales and Accessibility
Source: BusinessInBerkshire, 27 September 2008
 
An IT Analysis report says that making websites talk improves accessibility and sales.

Documentation: the Hidden Challenge of Mobile Interface Design
Source: UN, 26 September 2008
 
Multiple functions per key, animation, gesture, and industry regulation. Fantastic for the end-user, but what about the poor information architect?