Environments of the Future!
the smart environment’s impact on future behavior
Digital devices and smart home products aim to make our future environments better, more optimized, more connected, more focused.
As designers thinking about the intentional and unintentional impacts on behavior allows us to think more critically when designing well intentioned systems. The following is a catalogue of these smart environments intentional and unintentional behavioral impacts.
The environment that fails to listen
The environment that sells
The environment that optimizes
Amazon Go Stores use precise measurement with computer vision to interpret what items a customer picks up in the store so that a human cashier isn’t required to track which items are purchased. Mixed reality patents look at how the projection of information back onto physical space allows for the blending of our digital and physical worlds.
The environment as an extension of the body
The environment as a tool
The environment as a dynamic tool
Bret Victor — “Seeing Spaces”
The environment of the individual
Devices and personal computers can emphasize individual tasks in environments. Large rows of desks can also act to emphasize expendability of individual laborers, or work to create a feeling of flat hierarchy and collectivity.
The environment of the collective
Tools for Collective Intelligence, Dan Taeyoung
The environment that’s always watching
The environment that creates racial and gendered roles
The environment that wants to be your friend
This hilariously believable dialogue goes:
- human: “Alexa, *cough* I’m hungry. *sniffle*”
- Amazon echo: “Would you like a recipe for chicken soup?”
- human: “No, thanks”
- Amazon echo: “Ok, I can find you something else. By the way, would you like to order cough drops with 1 hour delivery?”
- human: “That would be awesome! Thanks for asking!”
- Amazon echo: “No problem. I’ll email you an order confirmation. Feel better!”
The environment of the daily ritual
The environment for forgetting
Moving info out of one’s head into services is regular practice now that digital tools can move around with us.
The environment where reality and fiction collide
The environment of simple states
