Doors 7: Pervasive Computing gets Perceptive Treatment

Doors is no ordinary conference. It's not full of researchers describing how it's done, or policy makers saying what it should be, or business people asking where to get more. It is a mix of artists, designers and philosophers given 20 minutes each to describe their contribution and it is mysteriously well-focussed for a tapestry made of so many varied and visionary glimpses into people's work. The focus becomes clearer the longer you watch through half-closed eyes, like many other impressionistic phenomena, and that sense of a composite purpose is mostly the work of director, co-ordinator and discussant, John Thackara, the man behind Doors of Perception. This year the conference addressed "Flow: the design challenge of pervasive computing" and so I went to hear what those challenges might be, because future trends and the wider context for user-centred design need discussion in the HCI and usability communities. Specific articles will appear over the next few weeks summarising one or related talks. This article provides an introductory overview.

The key question that the conference set itself to considering was: 'to what question is pervasive computing the answer?' In this respect it challenged the convention, present in much usability work as well as less people-oriented domains, that technology happens and we then just have to make the best of it. Thackara's opening address added another question: 'what social consequences will follow when every object around us becomes smart and connected?'

He described a coming world in which 'if we don't set the agenda, others will' and where a concept of proactive computing is being pushed that is ostensibly perceptive of our needs, yet 'these "needs" are usually assumed to be limited to communication and entertainment'.

'The quality of services - not the acquisition of goods - will become our measure of affluence... A service and flow economy entails a fundamental change in the relationship between producer and consumer, a shift to principles of relationship, connection, communication and interaction,' he said.

So, Thackara continued, 'the design agenda for flow has two parts: designing ways to perceive flows, and redesigning the design process itself... We need dashboards for cities and buildings. We need to experience the systems and processes on which we depend in order to look after them.'

But 'the purpose of systems literacy is not to watch from outside – it is to enable action. The second challenge for design in the space of flows, therefore, is the transition from designing things to designing systems – and from a project-based to a continuous model of the design process.'

Some 900 people attended the event, an intensely packed three days with plenty of time between sessions for attendees to mingle and talk to speakers, but no formal question and answer sessions involving the audience. Instead, Thackara took each speaker aside at the end of their talk and put them on the spot for a couple of minutes. This worked: it kept the flow, though at the cost of maximum participation. Still, with so many people and so many different disciplines represented, the loss of token involvement was no great price for the guaranteed absence of long-winded and irrelevant contributions.

Much of the conference had its roots in architecture, which at first surprised me, but as the days progressed I began to recognise the sense in this. Architectural theory and skills have already fed into the design of virtual spaces; and navigation through online systems (when it works) owes a lot to an understanding of structure. However, pervasive computing will be an architectural issue in a way that design in cyberspace has never been. After all, it will be a network in the real world, full of buildings, people, locations and the places in between. Doors 7 made the links between the virtual, social and physical worlds more explicit in a number of challenging ways. Watch these pages...

Associated Link: Doors of Perception

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