Rich Robinson, of Skookum Digital Works, gave a presentation at a recent Charlotte User Experience Meet-up. The title of the presentation, "Crafting Gorgeous User Interfaces" is slightly misleading. It's not just about making things pretty. It's about ideas, problem-solving, and understanding the people who will be interacting with dynamic interfaces, across devices, screens, and contexts. At the end of the presentation, Rich suggests that you take the time to watch the "Connecting" video, a video I featured on one of my recent posts.
Thanks, Rich, for sharing your thoughts and ideas!
I have spent much of my adult life as a school psychologist, working with children, teens, young adults, and those who care about them. This Sandy Hill Elementary tragedy hit close to home, because among those killed was a fellow school psychologist, Mary Sherlach. My heart goes out to everyone who has been touched by this event in some way, especially the families of those who lost their lives. Before going on to the rest of my post, I encourage you to take a few moments to listen to the children singing Silent Night in honor of those who lost their lives on Friday, December 14, 2012.
RESOURCES AND LINKS
Over the past few days, members of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)have been providing information and resources for the public to assist with coping with the tragedy, and Twitter and Facebook have proven to be great ways to spread the word. Some of the information below is appropriate for those who are directly involved with the children who attend Sandy Hook Elementary or those who attend other elementary schools in the community. Other articles have suggestions that would be appropriate for parents, teachers, and support staff in schools around the nation (and world). There are other articles below that are good for those responsible for planning longer-term safe school strategies
REFLECTIONS Violence prevention is a complex problem. From my point of view, preventing or minimizing tragedies such as the one experienced at Sandy Hook Elementary will take a systems approach, and involve people from a number of disciplines. I am convinced that it will take a larger number of people, who can commit to sustaining their efforts over a long period of time. What troubles me in this case is that the perpetrator was homicidal, suicidal. and matricidal. He had the wherewithal to know that the school most likely had a school safety plan in place. He did the unthinkable - he used a powerful weapon to gain access by blasting through the entry doors. And he would not stop until he had killed 20 young children and a good handful of caring adults. The problem of protecting schools from intruders can't be solved by making schools more prison-like. Sandy Hook school reportedly had a video surveillance system, locked front doors, a policy for visitors to be buzzed in, and a safe schools policy that required that all teachers (and students) receive training in what to do in an emergency requiring a school lock-down. If these things were not in place, many more lives would have been lost.
Firearms: The Elephant in Our Nation's Living-Room The elephant that is taking up a huge space in our country's living room? Weapons that are appropriate for military and law enforcement use, such as the semi-automatic rifle that was in the hands of this young man, are readily available in most communities. We know that the perpetrator did not own the weapons he brought to Sandy Hook Elementary School. We know that he had easy access to it because it was purchased legally by his mother, and apparently was kept in his home.
This topic is a political hot potato, but worthy of serious study. With "Big Data", advanced analytics, and some engaging information visualizations, I am sure something positive can emerge from the 'debate'. (Nate Silver, author of the New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog, might have a few words to say on this topic, judging from his December 14th post, "In Public 'Conversation' on Guns, a Rhetorical Shift".)
Need for Research - Co-Morbidity - Identification, Evidence-based Treatment, and Prevention At the time of this post, it was not certain if the perpetrator had a disability, a personality disorder, or a mental health disorder that may have contributed to his violent acts. We do not know if he was receiving treatment, or if he had ever been hospitalized or prescribed medication. Whatever the case, I am sure that the tragedy that happened at the Sandy Hook elementary school has caused additional worry for a number of parents of teens and young adults who struggle from mental health problems and other disorders. Having worked with a number of young people with challenging mental health concerns over the years, including psychiatric patients with a history of serious violence, my heart goes out to these parents. I am sure some of them wonder if the next crisis that flashes on the news is something that was initiated by their child, no matter what the child's age. Not everyone is aware that serious mental health disorders can crop insidiously during the early teens. The "red flags" might be attributed to puberty, and not be interpreted as precursors to something more serious. Some mental illnesses become full -blown during the later teen years or during young adulthood, often past the age where a school psychologist or similar professional in the education system can step in to intervene, or provide resources and information for parents. Many families have struggled to obtain an appropriate level of care for their teen or young adult child, only to find that these services have been reduced due to budget cuts to mental health and transition-to-adulthood programs in their communities. Many of these young people have good potential, but their mood states, unusual mannerisms, or periods of erratic thought processes make it difficult to interview for jobs and keep them unless they receive consistent support in the form of counseling, job coaching, and/or medical management. There is a need for more research and support that focuses on the needs of teen to young adult age group. This includes research in psychological treatment,group counseling approaches, psychopharmacology, mental health education, and more. Update: For a graphic description of what this might be like for a parent of a teen who struggles with emotional/behavioral issues at time, see theblog postthat has been circulating around the internet. The mother, Liza Long, wrote the post immediately after she learned of the Sandy Hook shootings. Her post triggered hundreds of comments, some of them critical. In response, an anonymous school psychologist reflected on some experiences with a student in need of support. I do not think the school psychologist's story exaggerates reality in any way.
Role of technology in Intervention and Prevention: Interactive digital media, such as serious games, might play a role in this effort. For example, the Australian National University developed the MoodGym training program, an interactive, free web-based application that use a cognitive-behavior approach to cope with anxiety and depression, and E-Couch, an online program for preventing and coping with depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety disorder.
For middle-school children, the PBS ItsMyLife website provides a number of activities, games, and videos that explore topics such as emotions, school, friendships, bullying, and more. The website includes lesson plans for teachers and tips for parents. More research is underway to support the use of interactive digital technology to support mental health. One example is the work of Stanford University's Calming Technology lab. Another example is the use virtual reality for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. The USC Institute of Creative Technologies has been involved in this area for a number of years. MindHabits, a suite of games developed by psychologists in Canada, was based on research and aims to help people reduce stress.
Coincidentally, Connecticut's Southwest Regional Mental Health Board is developing a web-based resource for young adults with mental health concerns, if the information from a job posting for the project is correct: "The goal of this project is to design or adopt an electronic/virtual system to engage young adults in mental health services. This system would assist young adults in enhancing their own mental health, and addressing mental health issues as they arise or develop via an interactive, multi-media electronic platform. This platform would integrate social networking and information media which may include website, facebook, You-Tube, Skype, blog, chat room, texting and phone apps. Development of this platform will be informed by Connecticut youth and young adults and advised by an advisory group of statewide young adult leaders in the mental health and addiction fields." It is my hope that the power of the "social" web will support efforts to collaborate and tackle this problem, on many levels. RELATED
Mental Health Issues - Co-morbidities After I learned that it was speculated (but not confirmed) that the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings may have had Asperger's Syndrome, I thought it would be helpful to include additional on the topic of Asperger's Syndrome and co-morbid mental health disorders.
Mazzone, Luigi; Ruta, Liliana; Reale, Laura. Psychiatric comorbidities in Asperger syndrome and high functioning autism: diagnostic challenges. Annals of General Psychiatry. 2012; 11: 16.
I've been looking for a relatively short video about human-computer interaction and related fields to include in a presentation I'm planning for high school students. The presentation is my small part to promote Computer Science in Education Week (CSEd). One of the goals of CSEd Week is to spread the word that computer science education is much more than learning how to program one. Technical and computational thinking skills are important to develop, but young people also need to know what sort of things they can do with these skills as they become adults in our technological society. As stated on the CSEd website, "Computing professionals work on creative teams to develop cutting-edge products and solutions that save lives, solve health problems, improve the environment, and keep us connected." Coincidentally, I was pleasantly surprised by a tweet I received today that linked to Connecting, a well-produced 18-minute video about interaction and user experience design. This video would be great to share with high school students.
The video features a number of well-spoken, creative professionals who are passionate about their work, people, and the future. Although the video is a bit techno-centric, it depicts people who live and breathe technology in a favorable light. It also inspires some degree of thought and reflection on the part of the viewer. Although much of what is discussed in Connecting is futuristic, the seeds were planted years ago. If you are new to the HCI/UX/ID/UCD world, it might help to read Mark Weiser's 1991 article, The Computer for the 21st Century, published in Scientific American in 1991, before viewing the video. After viewing the video, I encourage you to take the time to read some of the comments on the Vimeo website. Also read Marc Rettig's comments, posted on the IxDA website: "A film about interaction design: what it says about us".
Near the end of the video, there is a discussion about where we might be headed, as interconnected, technically enhanced, augmented humans. Hopefully we will not create, and then be assimilated into a Borg-like collective, or live out our days in a Matrix-like disembodied state. In the wrong hands, what might happen? Is resistance futile?!
Younghee Jung: "... you can not necessarily foresee the consequences when people adopt what you designed..to see something completely different from what you created. .it is like throwing a stone in the water, and you don't know what it will cause."
Blaise Aguera y Arcas: "....these are all augmentations of abilities as humans. And when the augmentation really works, then that extension of yourself feels natural, and beautiful and does what you want, and doesn't get in the way....The use of voice, and the use of natural gestures... you are removing the extraneous, you are removing the artificial."
Massimo Banzi: "...Something that can do it's own thing, disappearing in the background, is correct" (nod to Weiser)
Jennifer Bove: "...it is really important to look at what the consequences are of putting these products into the world when we think about things like the phone...the way it has changed our behavior, it can be enabling, and also disrupting...for these things to change our lives for the better, or enable for them to let us do things we couldn't do before.. they have to feel natural, and feels like a conversation." Robert Murdock: "How you actually design and enact a living system in UX is something that is quite challenging...you have to think about patterns of desired outcomes and behaviors you want to achieve, instead of moving a user through one flow in an experience."
Jonas Lowgren: "...back in the day.. it was one user, one task, one computer, its all gone now, its is much more like you are setting the stage, really, for other people to perform, but you can never tell them what to do." Eric Rodenbeck: "....the map is like a living thing, that is being made up of everything we got. The idea that it is different in the morning than what it was in the evening, is a really good idea to stay connected to the idea that the world is changing." Helen Walters: "What we need is for designers to be embedded in the topics that are really, really important right now, so there can be a better synergy between design, and business design, and social change design, and entrepreneurship." Andrei Herasimchuck "That is where the future lies with us. There will be software in everything..You can take all of those (digital) pieces, and you can design all kind of things around it. People are now actually entering their lives and what is going around them, into a digital format, and so we will start do things with that in the future, and I think it will be exciting."
Robert Fabricant: "The network is sampling the world, and knowing what is cropping up where, being able to match and find patterns...and anticipate outbreaks of diseases. .. We are trying now to collect from the periphery a much richer set of what is going on the world so we can learn as a society and optimize and evolve the right systems and services". SOMEWHAT RELATED IxDA Experientia: Putting People First What's the Difference- IXD, IA, UXD, HCI, UCD, UX (Jon Karpoff)
"Right here, in your web browser, you may contribute to anyone's creation and steer it in any direction you choose, or start a story of your own, by creating a seed animation for a new tree. Our hope is through the collective creativity of the web, an ever-expanding forest of narrative paths will grow." -Chris Milk/Aaron Koblin This Exquisite Forest is a collaborative art project by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, creators of the online Johnny Cash collaborative project. The Johnny Cash Project was a crowd-sourced music video for Johnny Cash's final album (see below). What I like about this project is that it provides viewers with the opportunity to create animations that link with those of other people, online. All of the tools to create animations and music are on the website, along with clear instructions and FAQs. You can even curate your own tree. For those who take a less participatory approach to art, the project's website offers something called "The Endless Theater", where viewers can watch the most popular branches of This Exquisite Forest.
The project makes use of Google's App Engine. Google's Cloud Storage handles the accounts and data storage. To access the project, you need Google's Chrome browser, as the project takes advantage of JavaScript and HTML5. RELATED
It is trendy for people who love dancing Christmas lights and pop music to share their enthusiasm for both with their neighbors - and the world, via YouTube and other web spaces, as mentioned in a recent Mashable post: Battle of the 'Call Me Maybe" Christmas Lights (Neha Prakash, 12/7/12)
NOTE: Unfortunately, some of the videos I wanted to share can't be seen on my blog, because the music is UMG restricted. Some of the other videos require viewers to sit through an ad before viewing.
Intouch Health, a company founded in 2002, provides remote presence solutions for health care, in the form of robots. The latest robot developed by Intouch Health is RP Vita. It has environmental awareness that allows it to move around a hospital without bumping into people or things. The doctor controls the robot through the use of an iPad by pointing to where it should go. The patient sees the doctor's head displayed on a screen perched on the top of the robot, as depicted in the picture below:
It sounds a bit strange, but these robots are in many hospitals, and are useful in rural areas where there are few medical specialists. The presentation below explains the key points of the use of tele-robotics in medicine: RP-VITA: A Glimpse at the Future of Healthcare Delivered Today: WIRED Health Conference, 10/16/12 Yulun Wang: Meet Dr. Roboto, Your New Bedside Caregiver from WIRED on FORA.tv
