Chapter 24: A simulated Listening Typewriter: John Gould Plays Wizard of Oz
Chris Schmandt. MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
J. Gould, J. Conti, and T. Hovanyecz, 1983: "Composing Letters with a Simulated Listening Typewriter"
Summary: This essay discusses some of the early history of speech recognition programs, around the late 1970s. This essay demonstrates how a speech recognition program was evaluated even before it existed. This technique became knows as the Wizard of Oz, where a hidden human is manipulating a device, while a a subject spoke in a microphone in front of the monitor, and the typist in the other room listened and typed what the subject was saying. The computer interface was being evaluated.
Discussion:
Clever way to evaluate a device, even before having it fully developed. I find really interesting to read about such technologies, and how they started being developed. It is helping me set a time fame in my mind that is leading to what we have right know and making me think of what is to come in the future.
Chapter 25: Seeing the Hole in Space
Steve Harrison. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A.
K. Galloway and S. Rabinowitz, 1980: Hole in Space (Video)
Summary: In this essay, Harrison describes how the work of two artists, Galloway and Rabinowitz, changed the way he thought about video-mediated communication. The Hole in Space was an art project developed in 1980, where a communication was made possible between two cities, utilizing projectors and audio. Harrison realized that they not only worked with communications, but that their medium was human relations.
Discussion: The only interesting part about this essay was the minimal description about the Hole in Space project. Even though that is part of the name of the title of the essay, unfortunately, it does not discuss the project any further.
Chapter 26: Edward Tufte's 1 + 1 = 3
Scott Jenson. Google, Mountain View, California, U.S.A.
E.R. Tufte, 1990. Envisioning Information.
Summary: In this essay, Jenson explains how he utilizes the 1+ 1 = 3 concept in analyzing the design of things, how this clutter makes things difficult to understand. This is, 2 items put together in a space create a third item, clutter. He describes the time of his realization, when he confused the close/open buttons in an elevator.
Discussion: Even when at the beginning this was a little confusing, the concept of 1 + 1 = 3 is interesting to read about. I can personally identify with the example of the elevator buttons, I hate pushing the open button when in reality I want to push the close button. Ironic, it should be the other way around, but like he says, people are always in a hurry, and pressing the open button just makes it worst!
Chapter 27: Typographic Space: A Fusion of Design and Technology
Jodi Forlizzi. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
D. Small, S. I shizaki, and M. Cooper, 1994: "Typographic Space."
Summary: Forlizzi discusses a little of the history of typography evolution. She focuses her paper in the contributions made by Muriel Cooper, who was a designer who later started teaching and working with graphic design and how it contributes to technology.
Discussion: I found the concept of kinetic typography to be quite interesting. Reading this article made me realize the importance of typography; it is something that I never really thought about before, but thanks to this field of study, today, we are able to better express our speaking in writing.
Chapter 28: Making Sense of Sense Making
Steve Whittaker. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K.
A. Kidd, 1994: "The Marks Are on the Knowledge Worker."
Summary: Whittaker summarizes Kidd's views and claims about how to process new information, and how to manage the old. He claims that mainly used ford for passive storage of information, but that they are not good at the processing of making sense of the information we gather. However, Whittaker proposes that maybe the reason of the problem is task management skills, instead of making sense.
Discussion: I agree with many of points highlighted by this essay, for example that information we have stored, many of the times we still forget that we have it, or even where we have it, so it basically defeats the purpose of storing information. However, I do believe that it depends on the use, and how organized he/she is. I would be awesome if there was such a software that would automatically arrange our file system, but even if there is, the user still needs to contribute to such a task in order to know where their files were stored.
Chapter 34: Revisiting an Ethnocritical Approach to HCI: Verbal Privilege and Translation
Michael J. Muller. IBM Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
A. Krupat, 1992: Ethnocriticism: Ethnography, History, Literature
Summary: Muller summarizes three major principles written by Krupat that an ethnohistorian could use in order to better understand a culture that wasn't their own: multiculturalism, poly-vocal polity, heterogeneity as a norm. Then based on these principles, Muller raises some questions that he had faced as an HCI worker: the analyst's location, translation as a core process, and verbal privilege as a core problem in HCI.
Discussion: In my opinion, this essay is missing more analysis on how to relate these topics to the HCI field. For example, if Muller had extended his discussion about those three areas he presented at the end, then maybe it would have been a more interesting reading.
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