Some visual thoughts…

A diagram to get some clarity on the direction and thoughts some what shortened down to be managed on one page but has provided some clarity and would recommend it to anyone. A mental note for my own study is that I wrote it out on paper several times first before transferring to digital format which can be said are an affordance of paper which I required for the initial process.

The first notes on the diagram is that it is very much open to change and further expansion and more detailed questioning of the areas as I continue to read round and develop some ideas. I am sure these concepts will develop over time in the diagram and I expect they are open to further interpretations.

Some extra notes on the diagram there is a two specific areas of social and tangible computing which form embodied interaction, this concept is taken from the book ‘Where the action is’ by Paul Dourish. I have particularly like the aspects of social and tangible computing and how this forms embodied interaction, it is defined as “Embodied interaction is the creation, manipulation and sharing of meaning through engaged interaction with artefacts”

With the major aspect that there is a relationship between action and meaning, I have taken the parts of the book which examine the action which is conducted through social perspectives and talks of and going I am going on to read on further to pick out the meaning. Other reading influences have come from ‘the cult of information’ where the following I think is an important question “Information is what information processing technology processes; but if we have no clear idea what information is and what it is not, what questions it can and cannot answer, what relationship is to other intellectual faculties- if we are not certain as to whether there are any other intellectual faculties besides the processing of the information – then we can have no clear idea what authority this technology should hold over our lives” All of this above is may not hold relevant to the problem in mind but again looking to see what bearing this may hold?

From the diagram also there maybe has some intertwine with content visualisation (this aspest is more central to the OMERO project) and the way in which this can be managed, this is just being picked up upon at this stage in order to understand if there is any relevance and links that can be made, the fundamental link in my initial thoughts is with regards to usability and presentation of the content of information.

With this collection of information I am generally curious on the application if the theories and philosophies which are discussed in ‘Where the action is’ curious to question how they may have application in the context project on very abstract level at the moment, but also at the same time the following text made more aware to ensure to incorporate the design aspect

“Being able to move around in the world and interact with pieces of the world enables learning in ways that reading books and listening to words do not.”

(taken from How Bodies Matter: Five Themes for Interaction Design Hartmann & Takayama 2006)

Which I think is the merging of the design aspect of the interaction design which I am interested and wanting to take on board too, effectively drawing on a multiple of areas to understand a problem.

Finally stumbled across this too which I found very interesting and thought was very relevant.

Blogging as a Research Tool for Ethnographic Fieldwork. Paper submitted to the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Internet Research 7.0: Internet Convergences, Brisbane, Qld, Australia, September 27 - 30, 2006:

Could this help provide more insight into an ethnographers work and so provider link to inform the design process ?

The simplicty of paper...

For the understanding of the electronic development of a notebook I have spent some time understanding and effectively breaking the notebook concept down into what is actually is which is organised paper. (Its has also been noted that some scientists actually keep their notebook this way, simply a collection of paper notes)

The background reading began with the work by Sellen & Harper(2003) and work and understanding of affordances and what paper can physically afford I think is what makes it so usable, the idea of affordances can be traced back to the work by J Gibson and the book "The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception"

I think that being able to understand this concept and look for the technology affordance can be an important aspect to be able to consider, and so I am looking to explore this further.

behind its upon like this it really does make the electronic age somewhat less In looking to understand this further I picked up "Scrolling Forward" by David Levy which looks at understanding the history of paper and writing, with this reflection you can begin to understand that the pen and paper have been able to evolve since is creation as it has centuries development, the book highlights also that inventions explode onto the scene and this is not so and is so with paper, as has evolved from walls and animal skins.

A further point taken up by the book was the point upon its analysis of a receipt and its understanding has been considered in terms of its history, yet its own cultural time and place in terms of the present is a key aspect in understanding its relation to its immediate surroundings

"What kind of thing is it? What work is it doing, and why is it doing it? "

These simple questions I would like to be able to ask of the notebook, with the purpose of breaking down the problem and being able to develop an understanding in a basic form.

My own key thoughts with this is the social and psychology of writing on paper as some what of a head start on the electronic medium, to be able to understand the problems and context of the environment looks to be a key factor, which has been picked up from the reading.

In continuation of the paper theme my supervisor recommended the Getting Things Done ‘GTD’ concept. - http://www.43folders.com/

Taken from web site -

In what can be only considered some what of a major turn around in the technology based users have effectively had enough

· Getting Started with “GTD” - An introduction to the system based on the popular book

· Introducing The Hipster PDA - The web’s most famous “outboard brain” is cheap and flexible

· Building a Smarter To-Do List - Learn the techniques to generate actions that actually get done

and stumbled upon this too

http://pocketmod.com/

Initial thoughts on this is kinda mixed, seems even the geeks have had enough of complex and bad designs of PDAs etc, and so now looking back at paper and want to be able to geek this up a bit, but have some interesting ideas, and have few ideas to be able to chase up.

A final point with PDA'S as conversion with lecturer in the department happen to raised that he tried a PDA for the purpose of benefiting his secretary, and this lasted for only two months. My judgement on this was it only partially met the secretary’s needs in knowing when where he was etc but in no way meet the needs of the lecturer and so was not used it in the long term. There was a mention also of how now he uses his paper based dairy and when in meetings he has the notes made before the users any of the electronic versions.

Some on going questions and related reading is actually to gain some insight and understanding into the importance of communication and social interaction in interaction design, as already strongly believe is a key factor and both for my own PhD too, as one of the more general aspects picked up in OMERO meeting will gather some further reflections for next posting.