SXSW: Interaction Design, Culture, and How Our Brains Work
Apr 02 2009
While at SXSW, I was bombarded with concepts, names, and countless tidbits of knowledge throughout the panels, presentations and keynotes I attended. Christina Wodtke gave an informative presentation on Information Architecture. UX Team of One presented by Leah Buley of Adaptive Path and Design for the Wisdom of Crowds with Derek Powazek were terrific presentations covered on Fresh here and here respectively. The topics that I enjoyed the most involved user experience design concepts, human computer interaction and how cognitive sciences influence it all.
Some of the most popular web applications exist to satisfy basic human needs. Organizing and sharing information. Symmetrical and asymmetrical relationships within groups. These are well researched patterns of human behavior. Technology is a chaotic, constantly evolving mess but behind all the innovation is our own innate desires that bring it all about. Where technology is fleeting, trendy, and a futile struggle with obsolescence, designing for human interaction with technology can be timeless. Interaction designers and developers are conduits for translating human behavior into effective uses of communications technology. In order to craft experiences that influence behavior we can employ aspects of psychology, anthropology, computer science, graphic design, industrial design and cognitive science.
Understanding behavior
Christina Wodtke offered this equation, B=ƒ(P,E). It is Lewin’s Equation, one of the most well known formulas in social psychology. Behavior is a function of the person and his or her environment. What a great simplistic way of validating your own thought processes while brainstorming. A person’s habitat and personal needs define their behavior. Actions are all about context. Goal oriented design that attempts to elicit behavior needs to be aware of this.
I attended the Design for Irrational Behavior panel organized by Robert Fabricant at Frog Design. It was intended to look at how to motivate people towards sustainable practices through design that appeals to our emotions. Robert put together a diverse panel including Eli Blevis from Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Peter C. Whybrow, M.D., Director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
While I don’t believe it was a particularly successful panel, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Dr. Whybrow’s views on culture and human behavior. He discussed how our brains are wired to engage with curiosity in anything that is novel. Our culture has developed to addictively target certain aspects of our brain through instant gratification and material consumption. As we mature from adolescence, we can realize that we are being swayed by instant gratification and decide not to act on impulse but only if some barrier exists to make us stop and consider our actions.
What does it all mean?
How did I translate all this into something relevant to interaction design? Novel and simplified approaches are inviting. Reward systems press for immediate behavior, and conversely, constraints on behavior create natural breaks for cognition and deeper interaction. Create motivation with curiosity. Use empathy. Foster convenience. Direct users attention through salient stimuli. Interaction design can leverage these behavior models to either ingratiate people with quick conversions or carefully lead them down a complex path. Whatever the desired outcome may be.
I don’t necessarily advocate the over analyzation of creative processes with neuroscience. So much of successful design is based on things that are hard to quantify. I do believe that we are in the midst of a huge cultural shift brought about by the rapid pace of technology. This sudden removal of barriers to human interaction is akin to the printing press being introduced to the western world in the 15th century. It’s a good time to be designer, developer, software engineer or anyone involved in interactive systems. This seemed apparent through the diversity of topics and exciting approaches presented at SXSW. One of the biggest takeaways for me was that I returned a little more excited to be doing what I do.
Salience and Self Actualization
Definitely check out Clay Shirky and his book Here Comes Everybody.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
My favorite aspect of the triangle: Most really ridiculous creative people I know have little self-esteem, confidence and respect for themselves.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
[...] See the rest here: SXSW: Interaction Design, Culture, and How Our Brains Work | Fresh [...]
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
[...] The n00b on the left is clearly different from the Super User on the right. The Super User is tricked out in a cool costume and has lots of “badges.” Badges are a great way to show off the success a user has achieved. People have a “collecting mentality”; letting them acquire badges plays on this basic instinct. It also fulfills the need for achievement and respect from others described in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (mentioned in the last Fresh post) [...]