This Interaction 10 conference session explored time as an important ingredient in interaction design, reviewing temporal concepts from physics, mathematics, and even landscape design to seek insights that help us produce meaningfully enduring designs. Video of the talk available here: http://www.ixda.org/resources/maria-cordell-interaction-design-fourth-dimension

1. Interaction Design for the
4th Dimension
Maria Cordell
@mcordell
interaction10
feb 7, 2010 | savannah, ga
#ixd4d
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3. http://www.flickr.com/photos
/doctorow/
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4. usability
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5. usability utility
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6. usability utility usefulness
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7. ?
usability + utility = usefulness
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8. IxD4D 8

9. IxD4D 9

10. Itzhak Perlman
IxD4D 10 Portrait Source: Akira Kinoshita

11. usability utility usefulness
- specific tasks - requirements
- speed / ease - feature lists
- completion
- limited scope
- use cases
- performance
?
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12. “…if designers focus only on the low-
hanging fruit of functionalism or usability,
the human experience with designed
objects is destined to a level of
mundane banality.”
-- Jon Kolko
Thoughts on Interaction Design
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13. Temporal Slices
temporal
slice
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14. Temporal Slices
broader temporal
view slice
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15. Time Domains
IxD4D 15 http://www.flickr.com/photos/schepers/258428249

16. Time...
• is flexible, like rubber
• is both familiar and mysterious
• is both concrete and fluid
• has directional flow
• shapes understanding
• has relative meaning
• is an enigma
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17. “Time is
much weirder
than we think
it is.”
David Eagleman
Baylor College of Medicine
IxD4D 17 Neuroscientist and author

18. Perception
Participants are told they’re to perform a “10-minute”
task.
Sigh. Time flies
Is it time for when you’re
lunch yet? having fun!
For some, task length was For others, task was terminated
actually 20 minutes after just 5 minutes
All were told they’d spent 10 minutes on the task.
Participants who thought the task had gone by “quickly”
reported it as more enjoyable.
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19. Irreversibility
IxD4D 19 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenduong/4081192022

20. Entropy
IxD4D 20 Image: John Grimsley, a.k.a. HamWithCam

21. Newton Maxwell
Einstein
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22. No limits Speed of
on speed light is a
for constant
anything
Newton Maxwell
What
does this
mean?
Einstein
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23. Special Relativity in a Nutshell
• The laws of physics are the same for any
two observers
- no matter how fast they’re moving with respect
to each other
- as long as they’re moving at constant speed
(not accelerating)
• The speed of light is always the same
- no matter your own speed
- or the speed of the object that emits that light
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24. As a Result...
• Time dilates
- moving clocks slow down
• Lengths compress
- in the direction of motion
• Mass increases
- (we’ll skip this bit)
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25. Stationary train with “light beam” clock
Clock measures time by means of a light pulse
moving up and down between two mirrors.
mirror
I got x
I got
x, too
light source
& mirror
When both the train and the observer are Observer
stationary, the train passenger and an observer
on the ground measure ticks of the clock and
record same time interval during each cycle of the
clock.
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26. Train traveling at near the speed of light
I got x
I
measured y
The observer sees the light pulse trace out a diagonal Observer
path. The speed of light is constant, so the observer
measures a greater interval during each tick of the
clock and concludes the clock is running slow. The
passenger sees no change from the stationary case.
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27. Relativity of Events
y'
event
v
y
S' S' x'
event
y
x event
x
S S
If S = S', an event is identified as If S' is moving relative to S, an event is
occurring in the same place and time, identified as occurring with different
with the same spacetime coordinates: spacetime coordinates. For S: (x, y, z, t)
(x, y, z, t). and for S': (x', y', z' t').
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28. 2D snapshots
of Earth orbiting the sun
diagrams from Professor John Horton
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http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/

29. layered into a
3D stack
diagrams from Professor John Horton
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http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/

30. world line
of the sun
The time axis
shows 4D
spacetime!
world line
of the
Earth
diagrams from Professor John Horton
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http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/

31. Light Cone
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32. Feynman Diagrams
Spacetime diagrams for documenting
elementary particle interactions.
The basic diagram
components.
All electromagnetic
interactions can be
described with
combinations of
primitive diagrams
like this one.
Feynman
diagram for like-
charge repulsion.
Richard
Feynman
IxD4D 32 Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/particles/expar.html#c2

33. Electron-Positron Annihilation
e+e‒ ⟶ 2ɣ
IxD4D 33 Source: Wikipedia

34. Penguin Diagram
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35. Time-based Models
• Fields • Applications
- Applied mathematics - Predictive modeling
- Biology - Forecasting
- Electrical engineering - Trends analysis
- Statistics - Historical mapping
- Economics - Performance
- Finance - Waveform analysis
- Business - Signal processing
- Geophysics - Monitoring
- Landscape design - Audio Engineering
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36. Rates of Change
exponential growth linear growth cubic growth
y = 2x y = 50x y = x3
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37. Time Series
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38. Time-based Waveforms
E
t
Oscilloscope: Voltage amplitude over time
IxD4D Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/altemark/

39. Temporal Experience of Place
IxD4D 39 Mount Diablo, California. Source: Maria Cordell

40. “Landscape architects tend to
think dynamically and in space-
time relationships.
They are sensitive to the
changing character of spaces
from day to night, with seasons,
and through succession.
They speak not of ‘what the
space is’ but of how it is
experienced as one moves from
place to place—the temporal
experience of the place.”
-- John Motloch
Introduction to Landscape Design
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41. Designed Place
IxD4D 41 Source: Introduction to Landscape Design

42. Temporal Foundations of Landscapes
• Scale
- from geologic (geologic uplift) to recent change (stream
erosion or a fallen tree)
• Sequence
- natural change undergoes somewhat predictable change
- cultural change is less predictable; based on differences
in populations, attitudes, and perceptions
• Rhythm
- diurnal, seasonal, successional, weather, and climatic
- nature’s purest statement of system and process
- movement toward some future condition
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43. Landscape as Story
• Sequential experience of landscape can be
designed as story
- each space is revealed to advantage
- through serial discovery
- unwrapping a temporal experience
• An evolving story line choreographs the viewer’s
movement through a space, accounting for
- mode of transportation
- character of path
- designed mood of place
- user behavior
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44. Story Lines
Casual Formal
IxD4D 44 Source: Introduction to Landscape Design

45. Temporal Choreography
“Landscape designers can manage
materials and arrangements to create
interesting spatial expressions and visual
relationships in all seasons, and
landscapes that change with season in a
rich temporal choreography.”
-- John Motloch
Introduction to Landscape Design
IxD4D 45 Mount Diablo, California. Source: Maria Cordell

46. Thinking Temporally
• Experience is inherently temporal
• Design decisions have long term effects
• Design-to-user dialog is ongoing
• User characteristics change over time
- perspective / perception
- skill / responsibility
- motivations
- interest
• Context, purpose, and meaning evolve
• Time and space are inextricably linked
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47. Contextual Landscape
user
job
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48. Designed Place
IxD4D 48 Source: Introduction to Landscape Design

49. Long Term Dialog
“The importance of understanding the long term
dialog that occurs with a product focuses around
the cultural methods of use and misuse that a
person engages in with this object. Indeed, long
term dialog may be exponentially more
important than short term usability.”
-- Jon Kolko
Thoughts on Interaction Design
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50. It’s about getting
beneath the surface of
functionality and behavior
into the messy emotional,
symbolic, mythical, habitual
crap that constitutes three-
quarters of normal
people's existence.
Stephen Taylor
@anomalogue
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51. New Ethnographer’s Toolkit
• Developed by Chris Khalil, Australia-based user
experience architect (www.chriskhalil.com)
• Captures key points user’s online experience
• Good for studying online behavior
• Ensures a realistic, natural record of participant’s
life online
• Recording mechanism is in same medium and
context as the target design
• Enables mental modeling based on authentic
goals, behaviors, and motivations
IxD4D 51 Source: http://www.chriskhalil.com/

52. Khalil: Digital Fingerprints
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Email
• IM
• Blogs
• RSS
• Mobile
IxD4D 52 Source: http://www.chriskhalil.com/

53. Toward Long Term Understanding
• Product fit over days, weeks, months
• User needs over time
• Relationships between tasks and larger objectives
• Product fit into context layers
• Role in overall work or life activities
• Intended product lifetime
• Effect on temporal perception
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54. Temporally Aware Design
• Design how the user • Balance casual and formal
uses time • Set the tempo
• Mold subjective time • Use locality
• Use temporal scale • Think relativistically
• Choreograph temporal • Capture layers and
experience dimension
IxD4D 54 Image: Maria Cordell

55. Thanks for listening.
Maria Cordell
mcordell@gmail.com
@mcordell
www.flickr.com/mcordell
#ixd4d
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