Hasta La Ideas

Images and reporting by Ciara Taylor

Genevieve Bell, director of the Interactions and Experience lab at Intel, presented the closing keynote, “Rage Against the Machines: Designing our Futures with Computing,” for Interaction12. The IXR lab, in Portland, specializes in exploring the ways in which technology can be integrated seamlessly into daily life, through re-imagining user experience. Bell asked the important question: Instead of designing interactions, what would happen if we designed relationships between people and technology?

Bell was animated and humorous throughout her talk on the final day of the conference. This might have been because she was warned that her presentation was the only thing standing between the attendees and the Guinness storehouse, where the closing party was held. In her introduction, Bell shared her background as a second-generation anthropologist focusing on cultural practice. She reflected on her initial recruitment meeting with Intel for the IXR lab. Intel told her that they wanted to learn about two things: women and the “ROW.” “What does ‘ROW’ stand for?” she asked. Intel’s easy reply was, “the rest of the world.”

While Bell was on the search to learn more about women, “ROW” and their relationship with technology, she began to consider Intel’s user group. Bell stresses the importance of knowing your users. She shared an image of Intel’s perceived user and then another image of who she discovered was the actual Intel user. The image of the Caucasian middle class family, sitting around the television laughing on the couch was an unrealistic vision of whom Intel was designing for.

Intel perceived user

Intel actual user

Upon identifying the more realistic user group of a single man in a cluttered apartment, Bell began to explore the relationship between the user and their technology. According to Bell, one woman she spoke with during her initial research mentioned that all of her technological devices were like a “backpack full of baby birds.” Each device has its own ring tone or notification. The user often has to reassure the device; for example if the user wants to delete something, the device has to be reassured that this is the actual chosen action. These machines seem to demand attention in the same way a baby bird relies on its mother for love and food.

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