Watch video here: http://vimeo.com/9661208 In "The Human Interface", I explain how we can make better products when we think of them as human beings. This is the version I presented at the Interaction 10 conference in Savannah (significantly updated from the one presented at the 2009 O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo in New York). Apologies to all the cited people and rights-holders I have not yet had time to credit.

1. The
Human
Interface
Christopher Fahey
graphpaper.com
@chrisfahey
#ixd10 #human

7. ROBOTS?

8. I HATE
ROBOTS!

9. PYGMALION

10. THE
REPLACEMENTS

11. THE
REPLACEMENTS

12. CYBORGS?

13. ”As our worlds become smarter,
and get to know us better and
better, it becomes harder and
harder to say where the world
stops and the person begins.”
- Andy Clarke, “Natural Born Cyborgs”

16. THE
UNCANNY
VALLEY
(Masahiro Mori)

17. The Uncanny Valley

18. The Uncanny Valley
(How comfortable
ACCEPTANCE
we feel around
the machine.)
FIDELITY
(How well the machine
mimics human
characteristics.)

19. The Uncanny Valley

20. The Uncanny Valley

21. Lessons so far:
1. Don’t replace humans.
2. Don’t replicate humans.

22. Origins

25. What childhood
experiences most
powerfully influence your
approach to interaction
design today?

26. Childhood IxD Experiences
1. Taking things apart to see how they work
2. Fixing broken things
3. Creating little worlds

27. Why?
1. Interaction design is a creative form.
UX designers want to use technology and
design to create emotional, imaginative, and
deeply human experiences.

28. Why?
1. Interaction design is a creative form.
UX designers want to use technology and
design to create emotional, imaginative, and
deeply human experiences.
2. Change is in the air.
New technologies are converging to permit
new and more compelling interactions.

29. New Technologies
Image
recognition
Touch
Voice recognition
Gesture

30. New Technologies

31. Not so new

32. Not so new

33. Not so new

34. About the
“Human Interface”

36. “An interface is humane if it is
responsive to human needs and is
considerate of human frailties.”
- Jef Raskin, “The Humane Interface”

37. “Design can be easier when we
acknowledge that products share
our homes and malls, and have
wants and lives of their own.”
- Matt Webb, BERG

38. “If we want users to like our
software, we should design it to
behave like a likeable person.”
- Alan Cooper

39. We make better
products when we
think of them as
human beings.

40. “The role of technology is to
mirror our humanness. We were
born with everything we need:
good technology reminds us of
that.”
- Jack Dorsey (@jack), CEO Twitter

41. The Human Interface...
... is about persuasion and seduction
... is smart and has awareness
... is physical, embodied
... is linguistic, poetic, and narrative
... is emotional and feeling
... has a name and an identity
... has a personality

42. “Want to know what I think the next UI break-
throughs will be? Here are two, both of which can
be considered a return to fundamentals:
1. Command line languages;
2. Physicality: the return to physical devices,
where we control things by physical body
movement, by turning, moving, and manipulating
appropriate mechanical devices.”
- Don Norman, 2007

43. The Human
Interface

44. The Human Interface
Literally, it’s about the ergonomics of the
body and the mind.

45. The Human Interface
Literally, it’s about the ergonomics of the
body and the mind.
Metaphorically, it’s about removing
abstraction from interactions

46. Lessons so far:
1. Don’t replace humans.
2. Don’t replicate humans.

47. Lessons so far:
1. Don’t replace humans.
2. Don’t replicate humans.
How?

48. Lessons so far:
1. Don’t replace humans.
2. Don’t replicate humans.
How?
Behavior!

49. Lessons so far:
Not about mimicking human behavior, but
about reflecting it.
Software that mirrors behavior:
• Chat and IM reflect the immediacy of communication
• Social networks mirror the structure of the special
primacy we give our own friends (vs. everyone else)
• Twitter reflects the semi-social “cocktail party” model
of social interaction.

50. Paul Dourish: “Where the Action Is”

51. Reeves & Nass: “The Media Equation”

52. Ergonomics for the Mind
(cups designed by the “other” Masahiro Mori)

53. Anthopomorphism

54. Human-ness

55. Human-ness (Christopher Alexander)
The Quality
Without a Name
(QWAN)
aka
The Phenomenon
of Life

56. Human-ness (Christopher Alexander)
1. Levels of Scale
Fifteen 2. Strong Centers
3. Thick Boundaries
Properties 4. Alternating Repetition
5. Positive Space
of Living 6. Good Shape
Structures 7. Local Symmetries
8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity
9. Contrast
10. Gradients
11. Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The Void
14. Simplicity and Inner Calm
15. Non-Separateness

57. Human-ness (Christopher Alexander)
1. Levels of Scale
Fifteen 2. Strong Centers
3. Thick Boundaries
Properties 4. Alternating Repetition
5. Positive Space
of Living 6. Good Shape
Structures 7. Local Symmetries
8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity
9. Contrast
10. Gradients
11. Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The Void
14. Simplicity and Inner Calm
15. Non-Separateness

58. Human-ness (Christopher Alexander)
1. Levels of Scale
Fifteen 2. Strong Centers
3. Thick Boundaries
Properties 4. Alternating Repetition
5. Positive Space
of Living 6. Good Shape
Structures 7. Local Symmetries
8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity
9. Contrast
10. Gradients
11. Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The Void
14. Simplicity and Inner Calm
15. Non-Separateness

59. Human-ness (Christopher Alexander)
1. Levels of Scale
Fifteen 2. Strong Centers
3. Thick Boundaries
Properties 4. Alternating Repetition
5. Positive Space
of Living 6. Good Shape
Structures 7. Local Symmetries
8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity
9. Contrast
10. Gradients
11. Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The Void
14. Simplicity and Inner Calm
15. Non-Separateness

60. Human-ness (Christopher Alexander)
1. Levels of Scale
Fifteen 2. Strong Centers
3. Thick Boundaries
Properties 4. Alternating Repetition
5. Positive Space
of Living 6. Good Shape
Structures 7. Local Symmetries
8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity
9. Contrast
10. Gradients
11. Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The Void
14. Simplicity and Inner Calm
15. Non-Separateness

61. Katherine Isbister: Better Game Characters by Design

62. Human-ness (Katherine Isbister)
External Internal
Characteristics of Characteristics of
Personhood Personhood
• Bodies • Agreeableness
• Faces • Dominance
• Voices • Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Neuroticism

63. The Three Qualia
of the Human
Interface

64. Three Qualia of the Human Interface:
Sentience
Intimacy
Personality

65. Sentience

66. Sentience: The ability to feel or
perceive subjectively.
The system is able to collect
robust sensory data from the
world, and make sense of that
data.

67. The Human Sensorium

68. Voice Recognition

69. Image and Face Recognition

71. Nintendo Wii

72. Not always robust
Not all sensory data need be robust to a system to make
extremely intelligent deductions from the data.

73. Not always robust
Not all sensory data need be robust to a system to make
extremely intelligent deductions from the data.

74. Not always robust
Not all sensory data need be robust to a system to make
extremely intelligent deductions from the data.

75. Not always robust
Not all sensory data need be robust to a system to make
extremely intelligent deductions from the data.

76. Project Natal (Microsoft)

77. Project Natal (Microsoft)

78. Project Natal (Microsoft)

79. Artificial Intelligences

80. The Uncanny Valley: Sentience

81. The Uncanny Valley: Sentience
Creepy stalker

82. The Uncanny Valley: Sentience
Observant and conscientious
Creepy stalker

83. Intimacy

84. 2. Intimacy: The quality of being close,
comfortable, and familiar.
The system can interface with
humans extremely closely, up
close and personal, and with
our glad consent.

85. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

86. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

87. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

88. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

89. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

90. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

91. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

92. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

93. Intimacy
Intimacy can be facilitated with and through machines:
• Emotional Intelligence
• Proximity
• Presence
• Social Web
• Personal Informatics
• Multiplayer Games
• Real Time Web
• Conversations

94. Machines that talk back

95. Machines that talk back

96. Conversations

97. Dialogue! Dialog?
Conversations

98. Politeness
Clifford Nass:
“Design solutions are often social solutions.”
Tom Armitage:
“The applications and tools we are building are,
whether we like it or not, defining the manners of
the web today. We should be careful to consider the
behaviors we wish to reinforce, and those we don't.”

99. Politeness
• Don't reject
• Don't interrupt
• Say hello and goodbye
• Use someone's name
• Look people in the eye
• Respond in kind
• Respect differences

100. Politeness Praise
Conversations

101. Identity

102. “You are not your job, you're not
how much money you have in the
bank, you're not the car you drive,
you're not the contents of your
wallet, you're not your fucking
khakis.”
- Tyler Durden, “Fight Club”

103. “You are not your job, you're not
how much money you have in the
bank, you're not the car you drive,
you're not the contents of your
wallet, you're not your fucking
khakis.”
No! You are your fucking khakis!
- Tyler Durden, “Fight Club”

104. Personality

105. Personality: The sum of an individual
person’s mental, emotional,
behavioral, and social characteristics.
The system has a distinctive
character, with recognizable
human cultural and
psychological behaviors.

106. We see faces

107. Facial Fidelity

108. The Uncanny Valley: Faces

109. Personality
Characteristics

110. The Four Humours

111. Myers-Briggs

112. Interpersonal Circumplex

113. Interpersonal Circumplex
Agreeableness
(Communion)
Dominance
(Agency)

114. Interpersonal Circumplex

115. Interpersonal Circumplex

116. Voice

117. Voice = Content Strategy

118. Personality
Characters:
• More than personality: Culture, Style
• Casting
• Names
• Personas
• Storytelling and Themes

119. Personality
Characters:
• More than personality: Culture, Style
• Casting
• Names
• Personas
• Storytelling and Themes

120. Personality
Characters:
• More than personality: Culture, Style
• Casting
• Names
• Personas
• Storytelling and Themes

121. Personality
Characters:
• More than personality: Culture, Style
• Casting
• Names
• Personas
• Storytelling and Themes

122. What’s in a Name
Maximillian Linus

123. The Uncanny Valley: Names
Bob, Jeeves

124. The Uncanny Valley: Names
Bob, Jeeves
TiVo, iPhone

125. Personality
Characters:
• More than personality: Culture, Style
• Casting
• Names
• Personas
• Storytelling and Themes

126. Personality
Characters:
• More than personality: Culture, Style
• Casting
• Names
• Personas
• Storytelling and Themes

127. Brands

128. Broken Personalities

129. Conclusions

131. The
Human
Interface

134. The Uncanny Valley
Unthreatening
Appearance
Annoying
Personality

135. Things to try
• Use pronouns for your product: he, she.
• Give your application a name
• Do more visceral prototypes, things that have weight
and that you can touch.
• Collaborate with new disciplines
• Go to a different field’s conference. Go to the Game
Developer’s Conference, or to SIGGRAPH.
• Tell more stories! Bring character-driven screenwriting
and dramaturgy to your experience design.

136. If we don’t humanize
our products, our
products will
mechanize us.

138. Thanks!
Christopher Fahey
@chrisfahey
#ixd10 #human
graphpaper.com