book

Calm Technology

by Amber Case

December 2015

Beginner

150 pages

3h 53m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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Who Should Read This BookHow This Book Is OrganizedSafari® Books OnlineHow to Contact UsAcknowledgments
Four Waves of ComputingThe World Is Not a DesktopThe Growing Ephemerality of HardwareThe Social Network of 50 Billion ThingsThe Next 50 Billion DevicesLimit Bandwidth UsageDedicate Separate Channels for Different Kinds of TechnologyUse Lower-Level Languages for Mission-Critical SystemSCreate More Local NetworksDistributed and Individual ComputingInteroperabilityHuman BackupThe Future of TechnologyConclusions
The Limited Bandwidth of Our AttentionPrinciples of Calm TechnologyI. Technology Should Require the Smallest Possible Amount of AttentionII. Technology Should Inform and Create CalmIII. Technology Should Make Use of the PeripheryAttention modelsAttention graphsIV. Technology Should Amplify the Best of Technology and the Best of HumanityV. Technology Can Communicate, But Doesn’t Need to SpeakVI. Technology Should Work Even When It FailsVII. The Right Amount of Technology Is the Minimum Needed to Solve the ProblemVIII. Technology Should Respect Social NormsConclusions
Status IndicatorsVisual Status IndicatorsStatus TonesHaptic AlertsStatus ShoutsAmbient AwarenessContextual NotificationsPersuasive TechnologyConclusions
A Calm Interaction Evaluation ToolExercisesExercise 1: A Calmer Alarm ClockPart AKey considerationsPart BExercise 2: A Clock That Starts the DayPart APart BExercise 3: A Year-Long BatteryPart APart BExercise 4: A Calmer KitchenExercise 5: A Fridge for Healthier EatingExercise 6: Using Ambient AwarenessExercise 7: Bringing Haptics into PlayConclusions
Building Teams for Calm TechnologyThe Rule of FiveTest Your TeamHire Differently from YouFind Political BuffersDesign for PrivacyThe User Experience of PrivacyGet a Privacy PolicyAnticipate and Expect Security BreachesSelling Calm Technology to ManagersObjection 1: More Features Are BetterSolutionObjection 2: All of the Legacy Features Must StaySolutionObjection 3: What About All the Other Stakeholders?SolutionObjection 4: There’s No Time for User TestingSolutionObjection 5: The Product Must Stay Secret Until LaunchSolutionEntering a Product into Human Society: A Calm Product LaunchRefineCompetitionDo the Research!Allow Time for Real-World TestingDon’t Redesign the Entire Thing at OnceDesign for Human–Human InteractionDesign for Optimum Battery LifeConclusions
Videoconferencing Before SkypeThe Beginnings of Calm Technology

Overview

How can you design technology that becomes a part of a user’s life and not a distraction from it? This practical book explores the concept of calm technology, a method for smoothly capturing a user’s attention only when necessary, while calmly remaining in the background most of the time. You’ll learn how to design products that work well, launch well, are easy to support, easy to use, and remain unobtrusive.

Author Amber Case presents ideas first introduced by researchers at Xerox PARC in 1995, and explains how they apply to our current technology landscape, especially the Internet of Things. This book is ideal for UX and product designers, managers, creative directors, and developers. You’ll learn:

The importance and challenge of designing technology that respects our attention
Principles of calm design—peripheral attention, context, and ambient awareness
Calm communication patterns—improving attention through a variety of senses
Exercises for improving existing products through calm technology
Principles and patterns of calm technology for companies and teams
The origins of calm technology at Xerox PARC