Designing Calm Displays
Both Kevin Fox and Rob Adams are thinking about ways to display information that requires little attention, aka ubiquitous computing, ambient displays, situationally appropriate interaction, and calm technology.
Rob: "The basic challenge was to produce an application that could help remind users of the people they needed to get in contact with while also not demanding their full attention (i.e. popping up a dialog box that proclaimed "YOU HAVEN'T CALLED YOUR MOM IN 10 DAYS!" was unacceptable). The interface also had to involve components that could 1) be understood at a glance, 2) be understood entirely aurally, and 3) be understood without the use of vision or hearing." View the design presentation 13.5 MB Flash SWF file
Kevin: " So what makes an effective ambient display? What is effectiveness? Is ambience and/or ubiquity the most important facet? Or is it the fidelity to which the changing data is realized in the subject? It must be a middle ground, where explicit data is sacrificed for the sake of 'calm'. A cellphone ring is not an ambient display, while a static painting falls on the 'overly calm' side of the spectrum: a display that might have a deep meaning, but no change over time. "
10:15:12 AM 
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