Often, I am quite cold. I own a burgundy cardigan that I am quite fond of, not just for the warmth it provides, but also for the type of warmth I receive by it. Decades ago, my grandmother wove it for my mother, which she has passed down to me. The yarn is soft, and has grown softer with every wear from my mother and now myself. I did not know my grandmother very well, as she passed away when I was young, but I know she loved me and my family very much. And I can feel that love every time I slip on the cardigan, along with a more scientific sense of warmth. In the reading, activity is considered “to be the key source of development of both the object and the subject.” As I seek warmth, I wear my grandmother’s cardigan, and as I wear it the cardigan changes through mild abrasions, washes, and my stitching. It is successful in both keeping me warm, and in reminding me of the closely-knit family I have surrounding me.
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A kid’s favorite UI- a Game Boy Advance
As a kid, my favorite UI was my Game Boy Advance. It was my companion on long car rides for many years of family vacations. The handheld size was the only size that allowed me to play in the back seat of a car, and the long battery life made it possible to play for hours (Dourish 19). Unlike a tangible UI that would connect me to the world, it acted as an escape from reality (Dourish 37). I would become so engrossed in games that I would not get motion sickness on windy roads. The technical features made it possible to use in a situation where no other UI would work.
The look and feel also contributed to my love of my Game Boy. The back was shaped to make it clear where to place my hands so my fingers could use all 8 buttons (Dourish 52). The comfort let me forget about any physical limitations. Even the exterior plastic color was important. The color (named “Glacier”) was a translucent blue that made all the internal components visible. As a kid who had received an electronics kit for Christmas the previous year, I was excited to see push-button switches that I recognized from my kit. I had a sense that someday I could understand every component I saw underneath the skin of my Game Boy (Kaptelinin 22). With my Game Boy, I could both escape the world and hope for a future where I could control every detail of my games.
Microsoft Surface (Pixelsense)
When it first came out in 2008, The Microsoft Surface Table (now known as the Pixelsense) brought a revolution in the world of touch devices. It brought with it a multitude of new interactions which people had dreamed about in their lives.
Microsoft Surface Table is essentially a huge screen placed on a table consisting of a ton of sensors. In fact, each pixel in the screen is a sensor that can capture very basic information of object proximity. This means it can detect shapes. It can distinguish among a variety of shapes both regular and irregular. It supports gestures, both on and away from the screen.
The Microsoft Surface Table had the pleasurability index which was not common in interactive devices in those days. Affective design and computing, technology of connected presence, context-aware computing , terms which started becoming trends around 2004[1] were seen to be included with this device. I have attached the activity theory of sending files via Bluetooth using the Surface. It is a very intuitive process to send files. The two people who want their files transferred place their phones on the surface. The surface then reacts to this action by displaying files in an aesthetically pleasing manner on the screen. The sender can now tap on a file and drag it to the other person’s phone to transfer it. This gesture feels so natural and human-like that it makes me use this device again although I can still transfer my files without using the Surface.
In conclusion, I would say that the TUI that Surface has offered me has left a mark in my memory as a very intuitive TUI.
[1] Kaptelinin, V., & Nardi, B. A. (2006). Acting with technology: Activity theory and interaction design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
A favored UI – Swype keyboard
I was delighted to try the Swype keyboard on a tablet a few years ago. At the time, I wasn’t used to typing on a touch screen, and Swype felt smoother, more natural, and less sporadic/stoccato than typical touch-screen typing. Being able to type with movement also felt somehow more expressive.
In terms of activity theory, it may have shifted the hierarchy of levels for my typing task. The Object, communication, was the same, and the activity was composing a message on whatever device and sending it to whoever. Deciding on the individual words in that message was a conscious action, but on a lap/desktop keyboard, typing individual letters of those words was (usually) for me an operation, work accomplished unconsciously. Suddenly, on a traditional touch-screen keyboard, I had to pay attention to the placement of my fingers for every. single. letter. It really broke up the flow of writing, because I think we tend to think and communicate in words or phrases, not individual letters. With Swype, instead of having an action for each word and then as many sub-actions as there were letters in that word, I just had word-level actions.