Tag Archives: human computer interaction

PredICTing the Future

Technological visions of the future generally come in one of two flavors. In a utopian dream, technology seamlessly integrates into the fabric of everyday life. On the other end of the spectrum lie visions of dystopia, often centered around the havoc a sentient artificial intelligence can cause when it inevitably determines that humans are our most significant threat. This essay attempts to illuminate a bridge between what is and what ought to be through a critical analysis of automation and technological innovation. We trace efforts to deskill labor, from early mechanization through current efforts to design a “future-proof” smart city. To do this, we examine automation through Haraway’s cyborg lens, the postmodernist assemblage of contradictory components. Who is benefitting from automation? Who is harmed by it? In following with the theme of our essay, we also follow up by asking, who ought to? To explore this question, we review efforts to build economic infrastructure from the bottom-up in a process that emphasizes upskilling rather than deskilling labor.

Doing theory as an information scholar

Having completed undergraduate work in one of the last four-field anthropology departments, we often say that the four-field approach has one foot firmly planted in the sciences (biology, archaeology) and the other in the humanities (culture, linguistics). Taken together, these four lenses are thought to enable the holistic perspective. Yet, I find myself more skepticalContinue reading “Doing theory as an information scholar”

What about Personas?

As we were going over Personas in my Interaction Design course at UMSI, I began seeing some articles on the topic that I wanted to share to the class. Kill your Personas (Links to an external site.) – Microsoft Design Stop obsessing over user personas (Links to an external site.) – UX Collective The discussion we had on personasContinue reading “What about Personas?”

Critique: Reflections on Taking Design Criticism Well

When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a comic book artist. I could draw of course, but I knew I wasn’t skilled enough to really go for it. After I got my first computer with an internet connection, I started thinking about web and graphic design as I was fulfilling these roles forContinue reading “Critique: Reflections on Taking Design Criticism Well”

UX is About Processes, not Products

I keep thinking about comments I’ve seen from UX designers on Instagram discussing posts that are tagged #uxdesign. These posts are almost always finished mockups. And amongst the generic bot comments sporting the ‘fire’ emoji, I often see an actual UX designer saying that this isn’t the kind of work they do in UX. WhileContinue reading “UX is About Processes, not Products”

The Needfinders: a Reflection on Patnaik and Becker’s seminal paper

Patnaik and Becker seem to give us a torch with which to light our path into that immersive, murky realm of qualitative data collecting and assessment. Among the several important takeaways I saw was that in doing social research, it’s easy to just gather data for the sake of gathering data, and you’ll be ableContinue reading “The Needfinders: a Reflection on Patnaik and Becker’s seminal paper”

Compare | Design | Explain Series Part 1

The goal of this report is three-fold. It seeks to compare and evaluate two competing websites in terms of human-computer interaction with a focus on the information processing model. This model likens our cognitive processes to how a computer works. Using this critique, we will then propose a new design, and justify why this design isContinue reading “Compare | Design | Explain Series Part 1”