Research · interaction design

How can we design technology that doesn't require our attention?

Currently, mobile and wearable technology demand too much of our attention. Research studies point that we are even experiencing difficulties to focus on our tasks or changes in our behavior. For example, it is common to interrupt our conversation with other people to attend the phone every time it starts ringing. Extreme sports is a area with high demands of unobtrusiveness for the technology. Atheletes in the field cannot afford giving attention to their devices. However, they may benefit greatly by using the information that technology is able to provide them.

During my master thesis I worked in partnership with the research team of Swedish Interactive Institute to research and develop the interaction design of a pair of glasses for skiing and mountain biking. The development of this head-up display makes use of the theoretical principles of activity theory and affective computing as a framework for HCI. The findings of the research propose changes in the design guidelines to avoid relying on active manipulation.