Readings

There are no required texts for this course. Weekly readings are as follows.

Reading Summaries

For each assigned reading, you will complete a short reading reflection (200-300 words). This should summarize and critique the main points of the text, as well as draw connections to other texts and ideas introduced through this course.

Reading reflections are due weekly.

Week 1: Introduction to the IoT and Connected Products

Mark Weiser (1991) The computer for the 21st century. Scientific American, pp. 94–104.

Context: Weiser's paper is the cananonical introduction to the ubiqutious computing vision. Introduced in 1991, it explores paradigm shifts required for and future directions in computing that lead to the IoT and connected environments we're familiar with today.

Framing Questions:

Prolog, Chapter 1, and Chapter 4 from David Rose (2014) Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire and The Internet of Things, Scribner

Context: David Rose introduced some of the earliest commercially available internet appliances. He founded Ambient Devices and produced the ambient orb and umbrella and went on to found Vitality a company that produced a smart pill cap to help enhance adherance to medications. This book is design-centered exploring at the strategies, considerations, and approaches for successful interactions and the creation of beloved internet appliances.

Framing Questions:

Further Reading (Optional)

Week 2: Prototyping Smart Products

Chapter 5: Designing Meta Products, Sara Cordoba Rubino, Wimer Hazenburg, Menno Huisman (2011) Meta Products: Meaningful Design for our Connected World. BIS Publishers.

Context: Designing Meta Products considers how to design interactive product ecosystems in a world where information is entangled between many actors, services, spaces and contexts.

Framing Questions:

The Design of Enchantment - Part III, from David Rose (2014) Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire and The Internet of Things, Scribner.

Context: We return to Rose's text to explore how he envisions the design of Enchanted objects

Framing Questions:

Further Reading (Optional)

Week 3: No Readings

Week 4: Understanding Ambience

Chapter 2. Principles of Calm Technology. Case, Amber. Calm technology: principles and patterns for non-intrusive design. “ O’Reilly Media, Inc.”, 2015.

Context: introduces the key concepts and principles that are required to design a device that operates in the periphery. These are illustrated through various examples of calm tech as well as links to theory and scholarship.

Framing Questions:

Rogers Y, Hazlewood W, Marshall P, Dalton NS, Hertrich S, (2010) Ambient Influence: Can Twinkly Lights Lure and Abstract Representations Trigger Behavioral Change?, UbiComp 2010

Context: This paper presents a study of three ambient devices designed to persuade or change behavior in a workplace setting.

Framing Questions:

Further Reading (Optional)

Below is a series of examples of ambient interfaces and approaches

Week 5: Envisioning Connectivity in the Home

Genevieve Bell and Joseph Kaye, Designing Technology for Domestic Spaces: A Kitchen Manifesto, Gastronomica, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring 2002), pp. 46-62

Context: Genevieve Bell has written extensively on the need to considering the 'messiness' of the world around us, as well as social and cultural considerations, in today's IoT e.g. 'Divining a Digital Mess'. This paper explores the introduction of 'smart' domestic technology through the lens of the kitchen.

Framing Questions:

Desjardins, Audrey, Jeremy E. Viny, Cayla Key, and Nouela Johnston. “Alternative Avenues for IoT: Designing with Non-Stereotypical Homes.” In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-13. 2019.

Context: A 2019 article that questions the need to reconsider the dominant visions and normative positions of the smart home. Article focuses on the question "What new avenues for domestic IoT arise when designing with non-stereotypical homes?"

Framing Questions:

Further Reading (Optional)

Week 6: Considering Connectivity

Section 7: How might we safeguard our prerogatives in an everyday world? Adam Greenfield. 2006. Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. Peachpit Press, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Context: Greenfield's 2006 book poses a series of short reflections on the (potential) impact of Ubiquitous computing. He critically examines the questions _we should ask_ of these technologies as they become more prevalent. It's a fascinating read and provides an excellent lens on the technical, moral, social and ethical considerations involved in designing and deploying IoT solutions.

Framing Questions:

Krishna, Golden. The best interface is no interface: The simple path to brilliant technology. Pearson Education, 2015.

Context: Golden Krishna's tongue-in-cheek take on designing smart devices and Zero-UI experiences explores the problems, principles and challenges of this vision. This sharp, witty and insightful critique of emerging technology underscores the problems and perils of screen-based user experience and designing systems that automate our world.

Framing Questions:

Further Reading (Optional)

Week 7: Future Connections

Contextualizing Ubiquitous Computing, Chapter 2, Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell, 2011. Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Context: We revisit Week 1 and Weiser's UbiComp vision with 'a manifesto and partly a progress report' by Dourish and Bell. They critically reflect on the state of Ubicomp to explore what might and should come next.

Framing Questions:

Six Future Fantasies - from from David Rose (2014) Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire and The Internet of Things, Scribner.

Context: In the closing chapter of Rose's Enchanted Objects, he speculates on six ways internet appliances will change the way we encounter technology in our lives

Framing Questions:

Further Reading (Optional)