Organizer: Eric Bergman, then Sun Microsystems

CHI Paper (2 pages)

Panel

• Arnold Lund, Microsoft Corporation
• Hugh Dubberly, Dubberly Design Office
• Bruce (Tog) Tognazzini, Nielsen Norman Group
• Stephen Intille, MIT Department of Architecture
• Bill Buxton

Abstract

This panel explores the impact video and film visions of the future have had on the user centered design, with a focus on the role of corporate vision pieces from recent decades. Two video vision veterans join us: Hugh Dubberly, co-author of Apple’s “Knowledge Navigator” and Bruce Tognazzini, creator of Sun Microsystem’s “Starfire”. We concider how far the CHI community has anticipated or created the future. Are we better off having created these visions, or are they costly exercises with little or no reward? Lastly, we view excerpts from several Hollywood films to ask if they teach us something envisioning the future.

The Videos

2. Knowledge Navigator, Apple Computer (1987), [5:45]
3. Starfire, Sun Microsystems, 1994
4. The secret life of Dr. WhatsOn, Nokia, 2000

Extended Summary

Knowledge Navigator, Apple 1987, 5:45

wikipedia: Knowledge Navigator

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox

Starfire, Sun

Starfire home at asktog.com

Tog on Starfire

Driving questions for Sun as a networking company:

1. How can we make use of the internet?
2. How can someone create a presentation in a couple of minutes?

• Competition for idea gathering
• Separate design from creating the prototypes
• Starfire was about 1/2 mio $. With todays technology the same could be done for about 100,000 $.

Flashback 1995 dhyman asks: what is better, viewing vertically or horizontally as far as applications are concerned. I'd imagine video conferencing as vertical and spreadsheets horizontal. Do you not see cruising through a virtual 3d spreadsheet landscape as a possibility? Tog: I recently put the finishing touches on a film, Starfire, that features a computer display I designed that is 2 square meters in size and is a portion of a sphere, featuring both vertical and horizontal surfaces that wrap around the user. Vertical surfaces are, I think, superior for conferencing, particularly with viewports big enough to deliver a real sense of reality. Horizontal surfaces are advantageous for gesture and stylus interactions, where users can sweep their hands over the surface of the display. People can't hold their hands up in the air for long periods of time. in HotWired: Club Wired – Bruce Tognazzini Transcript, June 1995 On TV in 1996 Internet Archive: New PCs - 1996 Ten years after the PC revolution, experts were saying the PC model is obsolete. This program looks at several fresh approaches to the personal computer. Included are the TransPhone net terminal, Apple's multimedia Pippin Power Mac, the brand new Palm Pilot from U.S. Robotics, the BeBox using the Be operating system, and Oracle's new NC or Network Computer. Guests include Bruce Tognazinni, author of "Tog on Software Design. Originally broadcast in 1996. Fast Forward 2003 BBC asks Tog what broadband will mean for the Internet 3.5 minute video in Windows Media format Lo-fi verions and more interviews on IP Issues are available at BBC World: IP Issues, October 23rd 2003

Bill Buxton: Compare HCI education with art school and film school. What is the equivalent of sketching in interaction design? Copy existing work before you can apply the techniques to your ideas.

A sketch without a social life is not a sketch. A sketch needs a place to live.

A cork board is the place to store sketches. Hence electronic cork boards are needed for interaction designers.

All levels of fidelity.

Resources

• Stephen Intille's Concept Video Clip List
• MIT’s collected visions of Homes of the Future
• Videos in User-System Interaction, Matthias Rauterberg
• Videothek von Horst Oberquelle
• My humble video collection
• Vision Videos: Theories of a Believable Future /by James Kalbach, 2013

Incoming Links

• The Real Paul Jones, Mar 2005