By: Ajju

Ajju — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:45:50 +0000

Wow I blogged about this a few days back: http://tinyurl.com/573a6

By: mattw

mattw — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:43:42 +0000

I wonder whether pointing the finger at “information technology” and “multitasking” is right. I mean, there are user interfaces and user interfaces.
Example: When I’m cooking, the locus of my attention shifts from the pot in-front of me to the recipe, to the spice rack, to the chopping board, and so on. But all the time there are smells and sounds (and, if it gets really bad, a smokey haze in the air). I don’t have to switch my attention every 5 seconds to the garlic to see whether it’s cooked enough for the next ingredient–I can trust that when it’s ready, that’ll bubble up in my attention. Likewise there are any number of things that I only pay attention to if necessary: when I open the knife draw I retain a memory of what other knives are available, so I may decide to do some washing up in a slow patch. But I don’t have to make that decision consciously–I just have that information available for all my everyday decisions.
Contrast this with my computer, or my television. Short of checking deliberately, I have no idea that a programme I like is about to be broadcast. Dialog boxes jumping about and the necessity to spell out messages letter-by-letter on the keyboard mean I can’t do my email without really focussing on it. I have no trust that my computer is going to be exactly the same day-to-day, and there’s precious little pre-attentive information available. Nor can there be: the whole metaphor of the user interface – in all our technologies – is all-or-nothing with regards to focus. It’ll take a ground-up redesign to take care of that.
But I’m not sure we can blame this trait on people having a lot to do.

Comments on: Turn on, tune in, spin out

By: Ajju

By: mattw