Designing for the Microcosmos Martin Lindner ARC Research Studios Austria Studio eLearning Environments Human-centered Design for 'Casual' Information and Learning in Micromedia Environments

RESEARCH www.microlearning.com RESEARCH

www.microlearning.org

DEVELOPMENT www.knowledgepulse.com DEVELOPMENT

www.knowledgepulse.com

“ The Solution for Information Overload ?

More Information, More Information, delivered and experienced in different ways.” Lee Bryant (www.headshift.com)

“ Humanising the Enterprise through Ambient Social Knowledge.” Humanising Learning through an Ecological Approach to Digital Media.

Information System Design Learning Experience Design Designing the subject position of the human user.

The Supermodern Subject ?

What is Human-centered design in the age of “supermodernity”, when the structure of center-periphery itself is vanishing? A A A A A A A A A A a “ In the new digital media environment, the position of the subject seems paradoxical: Empowered like never before, inflated like never before, overwhelmed like never before.“ Marc Augé (1994)

?

Subject Position (last millenium)

MICROSOFT OFFICE FILES & DOCUMENTS FIXED-LINE TELEPHONY DESKTOP APPLICATIONS Subject Position (last millenium)

MICROCONTENT discovered in 2001 GOOGLE SHREDDERING MACROCONTENT PC GOING MOBILE MOBILE PHONES EXPLOSION OF THE E-MAIL INBOX 2000/2005: MS Office exploded MULTITASKING ATTENTION DEFICIT TRAIT LIFE INTER-RUPTED

MICROCONTENT discovered in 2001 The Microcontent Office MICROTASKING CONTINUOUS PARTIAL ATTENTION

A New Subject Position

“ There is a world of difference between the modern home environment of integrated electric information and the classroom.” Marshall McLuhan (1967):

E-learning: „The Ideal Classroom“ …

… and the Ideal Office

The Ideal of E-learning

“ Did you hear? e-Learning is Dead. That's right... dead. Shot down in the prime of its life. Six feet under. Kaput.“ Jay Cross (2003) The man who had coined the term in 1998

„ Google Learning“

Personal Learning 2.0 Environment

“ Men are suddenly nomadic gatherers of knowledge , … informed as never before, free from fragmentary specialism as never before – but also involved … as never before.” Marshall McLuhan (1964):

Medium, not MEDIA

Medium, not MEDIA Medium morphing into Media

“ Media is no longer something we do …

… but something we become part of.”

MICROMEDIA is … Here & Now Always On, 24/7 Sensurround, Multimedia A Chain Reaction of Small Perceptual Shocks A Total and Immersive Field

Umair Haque (2005), The New Economy of Media Micromedia, Connected Consumption, and the Snowball Effect The explosion of digital micromedia puts an end to Mass Media as we know it. www.bubblegeneration.com

Microchunks result from the “unbundling of traditional media goods” like news, albums, books … [and courses]. www.bubblegeneration.com Umair Haque (2005), The New Economy of Media.

Lev Manovich (2000), Macromedia and Micro-media “ Media technologies seem typically to move in one direction : ‘more’. More resolution, better color, better visual fidelity, more bandwidth, more immersion.” www.manovich.net

… but why would people want to play games on a tiny phone screen? or texting? or moblogging?

Lev Manovich (2000), Macromedia and Micro-media “ While some media forms get richer, others stay purposefully 'poorer.' A more minimalist kind of media, characterized by low resolution, low fidelity, and slow speeds, is born. I call it micro-media.” www.manovich.net

Lev Manovich (2000), Macromedia and Micro-media Micromedia will not go away: “ Given the fact that soon more users worldwide will access the Internet through cell phones than through computers, it will not only successfully compete with macro-media but may even overtake it in popularity.” www.manovich.net

MICROCONTENT

“ We've discovered in the last few years that navigating the web in meme-sized chunks is the natural idiom of the Internet.“ Anil Dash, 2002 Introducing the Microcontent Client

… memes : replicating units of cultural information

Microcontent is a virus

self-contained the smallest units of meaning / communication that can stand for itself elementary individually addressable to be easily re-used and re-mixed appropriate media format appropriately formatted to work as building blocks in different cultural patterns and individual mindsets Dash‘s microcontent definition (paraphrase): Human processed information

self-contained [some relation to object-oriented programming] elementary individually addressable to be easily re-used and re-mixed appropriate data format appropriately formatted for integration in different applications and services Dash‘s microcontent definition (paraphrase): Computer processed information

The evolution of microcontent is a complex feedback phenomenon – it can not be reduced neither to software nor to humans

User-generated Content

In micromedia environments, knowledge takes on the form of clouds. (Microcontent being something like small drops of vapor.) “ Personal Info Cloud ” Thomas Van der Wal, 2005 www.vanderwal.net

„… all kinds of information chunks in our digital life take on the form of digital lifestreams“, “ leaving behind a stream-shaped cyberbody, like an aircraft's contrail , as we go” David Gelernter, 2000: The Second Coming – A Manifesto

Microcontent Ecology Cycle drops flow pools clouds

PERCEIVED SIMPLICITY POINT OF PRESENCE OPENNESS THE FLOW GESTURE-DRIVEN PERIPHERY / CASUALITY 6 Design Principles for Micromedia Applications

POINT OF PRESENCE

The Blank Page of the Mind o ?

PERCEIVED SIMPLICITY

Aesthetical quality: Interface structures have to be perceived as simple in a complex media environment.

OPENNESS

OPENNESS OPEN SPACE

OPEN SPACE

SPACE

PERIPHERY / CASUALITY

www.yiibu.com Mobile content to enhance your everyday moments During idle moments on the subway, in-between meetings, or running to soccer practice—mobile devices are increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives. Yiibu creates small lifestyle and learning applications for those 'in-between-moments' you spend with your mobile devices.

www.yiibu.com

www.vocel.com

www.vocel.com

THE FLOW

THE FLOW

THE FLOW

THE FLOW

THE FLOW

OPENNESS

THE FLOW

„ GESTURE-DRIVEN “

„ GESTURE-DRIVEN “

„ GESTURE-DRIVEN “

Thank You. ARC Research Studios Austria Studio eLearning Environments

E-learning 1: The Blackboard ® Classroom

Thank You. Martin Lindner ARC Research Studios Austria Studio eLearning Environments