[finders] Multiscale User Experience Design

[finders at findability.org]

November 4, 2010: Multiscale User Experience Design

http://findability.org/archives/000643.php

To riff off of Dave Gray's smart thingking, one of my favorite parts of the book is the discussion of multiscale user experience design.

Kuniavsky goes beyond Mark Weiser's model of tabs, pads, and boards to embrace a wider range of scales: covert, mobile, personal, environmental, architectural, and urban. The idea is to get us thinking about which devices and interfaces work best at which scales and how they can work together.

#ubicompsketchbook on Twitter and Flickr

Of course, it's not easy to imagine multiscale interactions in the abstract. That's why I love the Business Origami approach. By combining tangible artifacts and sketching, it makes brainstorming more accessible and fun.

What I'd like to see #lazyweb is a Ubicomp Origami Kit with icons for multiscale and multisensory devices. Timo's Everyware Icons for sensor fields and objects with invisible qualities might be a good place to start. How else can we make it easier (and more fun) to sketch the future?

Strange Connections

* UX Storytellers is a free ebook worth checking out.

* Video (plus interview) from my Ubiquitous IA talk at IDEA 2010.