This week, all four EID articles focused on a design or
psychological phenomenon that I see as a positive in the world. Not all earthshattering, groundbreaking
innovations or discoveries, but at least positive.
For example, Monday showcased “The Edge”, Deloitte’s headquarters
in Amsterdam. The building integrates innovations across the spectrum,
including big data analytics, eco-friendly designs, collaboration psychology,
work design, and so on. Some of the commenters on Linked In were concerned
about the privacy implications of the monitoring. This is a very legitimate concern, but one
that can be dealt with through good, ethical, policy design and encryption. No NSA issues here if we are cognizant.
Then Tuesday looked at a wireless meat thermometer connected
to a smartphone app. This allows the
visually impaired to cook meat without risking (or at least not more than the
rest of us) undercooking the middle. Again, the Linked In crowd had
concerns. One regular reader didn’t
think the visually impaired should be cooking meat in the first place. I think
he assumed an open flame would be dangerous in ways the thermometer can’t
handle. But those hazards can be dealt
with as well.
Wednesday looked at the psychological construct of framing.
We focused on how designers can use framing to nudge users into taking the
interface and content more seriously than they otherwise would have. This can
be for electronic signatures, contracts, and so on that seem more like play
acting when they are on-line.
Finally, I shared a story from standardized testing that I
got from Annie Murphy Paul. It dealt
with the subtle but important difference between equality and equivalence, how
this can be a powerful tool for students to learn and use, but how it is unfair
to use in standardized testing when it was never taught in school. It is
definitely not intuitive.
I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed
writing them.
Have a great weekend.
