INTERACT2005 Special: Keep Designs open for Human Ingenuity

"Trust and Incidental Interaction: Would you let a Talking Paper Clip run YOUR Home?" at the INTERACT 2005 conference, held in Rome towards the end of last year, featured - among others - Albrecht Schmidt of the University of Munich's Embedded Interaction Research Group explaining his answer to the panel question. It may be helpful to refer back to the first article in this series When Interactions happen without You for background.

Yes, said Schmidt, presenting "I think I let the paper clip run my home... but first I need to know how to cheat on it". His argument was it is fine for software to go on in the background as long as people know what it is capable of and how to override it.

He pointed out that the system acquires implicit inputs from the user and may then present implicit output to the user. Implicit input are actions and behaviour of humans, done to achieve a goal and are not primarily regarded as interaction with a computer, but are captured, recognized and interpret by a computer system as input. Implicit output is that which is not directly related to an explicit input and which is seamlessly integrated with the environment and the task of the user.

'But create systems that allow for implicit and explicit interaction – you never get purely one!' he said, giving the example of how people manipulate automatic doors to make them open and that explicit use requires an understanding of the conceptual model of the user interface.

'Provide a conceptual model! Make the conceptual model accessible. By the appropriate conceptual model, the users will be empowered to use the system in various ways and if something goes wrong they may understand why. What does this system do? How does the system do it? But no technical details please…

'Humans are ingenious: people are used to make good use of the tools and technologies at hand. Do not underestimate the ingenuity of people in appropriating their environment and their tools. If it is the easiest way to initiate a phone call to your loved one by switching on the cooker and leaving the kitchen people will use it… and there is nothing wrong with that!... have you never opened a wine bottle with something other than a corkscrew?' he asked.

Quoting Lenin: 'Trust is good, control is better.', he concluded 'Accountability and the ability to control are essential for gaining trust in a system.'

In design this means to include components that:
– can explain why something happens (or happened)
– provide a history of what has happened
– provide a journal or log of all information collected and used
– show who has had access to what data

And he suggested that the following new questions would be worth asking:
– How much of a mental model is required to make good use of the technology?
– How can users learn these models and how do they explore such new interactive technologies?
– Where is the “right” balance between incidental, implicit, and explicit interaction?

'To explore this, experimental research with real people in real environments is essential.'

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