If You’re a Knowledge Worker, The Computer on Your Desk Will Soon (Finally) Change
Modern knowledge work is inconceivable without computers. Yet over the past decades, there has been little evolution in how people work with their keyboards and mice. Osman Dumbuya, CEO of Incari, explains why soon creativity will finally become more important again than the ability to spend hours filling out Excel spreadsheets.
The rise of the personal computer has revolutionized modern knowledge work. ‘A computer on every desk and in every home’ — Bill Gates gave Microsoft, the company he founded, a clear mission. The Internet, Quantum Computing, AI and cloud technology have further accelerated the transformation and, in many areas, also made it easier. People can collaborate digitally, across national borders and continents. The world is connected and so is knowledge and data across the globe.
Modern knowledge work is inconceivable without computers, but why was the computer not also rethought as an executive tool for so long? Especially on May 1, which is Labor Day in many countries, the question must be allowed whether things could be better. Easier for the working people: or entirely different?
Technological progress has accelerated enormously, but at the same time the digital industry has fallen into a certain lethargy. The introduction of the computer wanted to be understood as such a relief for the working human being that an adaptation to a more intuitive way of working seemed unnecessary. Our interaction with computers has hardly changed in the past four decades. Even today, the vast majority of knowledge workers use a keyboard and a mouse to operate their computer. Measured against the speed of technological progress, these are almost stone-age human-machine interfaces. Touchscreens are no longer all that new either.
Digital devices will be invisibly integrated
I am convinced that we are now at a point where the way people work with computers has to change. How can people interact with the machine in the best possible way? This question needs to be asked much more often, and the answer has the potential to change the workplace as much as the invention of the personal computer.
I want to make digital machines more suitable for people. Access to digital infrastructure will change. In the private sphere (or the home office), this means that we will soon no longer align the sofa in our living room with the TV. In the future, digital devices will be invisibly integrated. On the table, on the door, in the walls, in a wooden board. We will no longer perceive that it is a computer. We will no longer have to submit so much to the needs of the computer in what we call work.
Creativity is the asset of knowledge workers, not filling out Excel spreadsheets
In the same way, the offices of knowledge workers will change. Screens, keyboards and mice will disappear from desks, interaction with the computer will no longer be the main component of knowledge work. It will make work easier and give people more time for what their work is all about. Knowledge workers develop ideas and solve problems, their creativity and knowledge is their asset. Not the ability to fill PowerPoint slides or Excel spreadsheets in hours of minutiae. The visual presence of technology in the office will no longer be necessary. The office is evolving into an environment where people and machines interact constantly. Real and digital realms are merging. At the same time, the simplification of the work process opens up scope for a different lifestyle that no longer places work at the center.Our path at Incari makes technology invisible and makes you feel more like magic.
This new transition between reality and virtuality has been discussed for some time now under the buzzword metaverse. In its Work Trend Index 2022, Microsoft has even asked 30,000 employees in 31 countries whether they would be open to using digitally immersive spaces in the metaverse for meetings or team activities in the coming year. 52 percent of respondents answered “Yes.”
Talk of the metaverse shows, that many companies are starting to rethink the computer itself
No one can predict what a so-called metaverse will look like. Neither Microsoft nor Meta. They only have the resources to make something work, whatever it will be. But these companies have rightly recognized that the interaction between humans and machines will change fundamentally.
This change will affect the workspace and it will redefine what we call work. And that’s good news, especially for knowledge workers. Technology should serve people, not the other way around.
In other words: The tools are there. It’s time to rethink the computer itself.
Good design should make people’s lives easier — at Incari we are convinced of this. We are a Berlin-based software provider that creates the HMI development platform Incari Studio. We create the required tools and technologies necessary for developing future-based HMI systems in various industries. InterFaces is a platform to explore what such systems can or will look like at some point in the future. Follow us on Twitter: Incari_HMI, Follow us on Instagram: Incari_HMI, Follow us on LinkedIn: Incari HMI Development.
