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August 03, 2004
DIS2004: design for hackability
design for hackability
Anne Galloway
inspirations: hackers, punk d.i.y, pirate radio, dj/remix, Lego Mindstorms communities
if technology isn't being used to buy you, it's used against you
if you don't like something, d.i.y! change it!
what sort of hackability?
political - production not consumption
ethical - respecting people, places and practices / diversity
beautiful - being graceful and comfortable in one's own skin
*****
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Hacking the network
http://www.coin-operated.com
Hacking context
from fixed to mobile
Midi scrapyard challenge
creating interfaces from discarded materials
how does the re-appropriation of context change an interface?
collaborative systems
http://www.simpletext.info
shared audio visual performance
collaboration potential of mobile devices
what are the strengths of non-verbal communication?
change context of use, not the device itself
physical display
Policestate
reappropriate network traffic through to display via 20 remote controlled police cars
networks of coincidence
http://www.umbrella.net
weather acts as a coincidental experience
spontaneous networks
visual footprint of a network (umbrella illuminates)
coincidence vs constant
*****
Elizabeth Goodman
as a designer you actually don't always like having your stuff hacked
artificial distinction between designers and users
hackability is not usability, or ease-of-misuse.
hackability is not inherent in artifacts. It arises from social tensions.
hacking game engines to create films in the game, that can then be edited and distributed
sanctioned transgression is no transgression at all
hacking barbie and action man voice boxes
rtmark - "I embarrassed a whole company"
FIASCO - open system for urban gameplay
hacking of public space
someone used the game in Portland, rather than New York
is this a good hack?
in the end, the streets are the judge
http://www.asphalt-games.net
tension between designers and users was effective, but took time to get used to
systems are not for us, but the users, and only they can judge
****
Lalya Gaye
http://www.viktoria.se/~lalya
ubicomp triggers new aesthetic practices that enable people to transform their everyday life into a raw material for creation and personal expression
Context Photography
camera captures the invisible context with sensors and changes photos due to context
Sonic City
A real-time personal soundscape of electronic music by walking through and interacting with urban environments
paths become scores
music is articulated by ad hoc bodily interactions
Tejp
low-tech location-based personal layers in public space
audio tags - audio whispered to by-passers
embodied interaction, away from PDA sreens
enable everyday resources (right away, in context)
sample&hold - e.g. iobrush
use as controllers and interface - Sonic CIty
reveal
amplify
parasite
modify
end-users have to creatively deal with constraints
how does the designers take into consideration all these aspect (inc. effort, urgency)
*****
Dan Hill
http://www.cityofsound.com
BBC has cultural context to deal with, and wide diversity
background of Adaptive Design - Tom Moran, Stewart Brand
focus on usefulness rather than usable
South Bank architecture - 'people will just assemble the bits and pieces for themselves'
context-centred design
Steam - pulls info from radio listings and streams
things created for themselves that others find useful
no user testing
'always consider the next larger context'
don't expect their stuff to scale - and that's ok
Ripples around broadcast events
blogs / chat
feeds / watercooler
specialist sites / press reviews
hackable layers
the Smithsons - Sheffield University
internal hackability in the BBC
URLs built to last - enough URLs for 25 years of radio
transparency and openness
designers as communicators
Archigram were more magazine publishers than architects
open-source thinking rather than code
publicradiofan.com
bleb.org
trying to give these sites feeds in more useful formats
issues for clients and process
+ve
increased innovation
multi-context
better fit to purpose solutions
-ve
potential loss of resilience (ethics? - what is abuse?)
loss of control over context & brand
*****
is there a culture of hacking?
changing physical things seems 'harder' or need to be more empowered
people chaining together things at hand (without having to get hands dirty)
O'Reilly Make magazine
Ready Made magazine - furniture hacks
why now?
more dissemination of information
quicker broadcast of ideas
now being taught
but hacking has always been a part of culture (e.g. automobile as a hobby, hot rods, lowriders)
any tech that becomes ubiquitous enough, with common ownership, with have some people starting to hack [Marc Smith's 2%?]
what about people who hack things that cause discomfort for other users?
is it the role of the designer to mediate? (or the law?)
emotional harm can/will happen
communities know when their norms have been violated
diff between civil disobedience and terrorism is a fine line
don't design 'for' or 'against' hackability, but how to let things happen on their own
but it is good for designer to know or the issues and engage them
people will always find a way to break things - have to learn from those episodes
reappropriation of tools
people even home-brewing car cleaning products
mobile phones as flashlights
is hackability ever going to be anything than a subculture?
several examples have moved near to/over the line (mashups)
is there a high barrier-to-entry?
tools to build things on top of other things
e.g. pull delicious and audioscrobbler into blogs
cut and paste
hardware hackability still difficult
hackability can be taken to the level of leaning against a wall or putting your feet on a chair
everyone shouldn't be a hacker - lots of people don't want to do it
[is there a diff between hacking for yourself or hacking for a community?]
[is designing for hacking too sanctioned?]
how can it be made fun?
what a re the visual affordances of hackability?
ipod is very unhackable, feels unhackable
mobiles have hardware affordances - batteries taking out, sim card changing, replacable covers
'hacking' as a notion may be a Western hemisphere thing - other emerging cultures just do it to survive
hacktivists working on every continent - but still an online culture
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