Spatial UI, what we can learn from carpenters and chefs

1. A room for
understanding
Sjors Timmer
@sjors

2. What if we could work with information like a carpenter works
with wood?

3. Paul Sellers
How to make a Mortise and Tenon Joint

6. The intelligent use of space
New rules for computing
A workshop for understanding
1.
2.
3.

7. 1. The intelligent use of space

8. The intelligent use of space
How we manage the spatial arrangement of items around us,
is not an afterthought; it is an integral part of the way we think,
plan and behave.
- David Kirsh

9. Extend memory

10. Sense making

11. Novel ways of seeing

12. Designing the environment
Experts [design] cues [and constraints] to trigger a known rule
without halting the activity
- David Kirsh

14. Experts constantly re-arrange items to make it easy to
track the state of the task, or to notice the properties
signaling what to do next.
- David Kirsh

15. To simplify perception

16. To simplify choice

17. To simplify mental effort

18. Experts constantly adapt their environment to create little
assembly lines so they can stay in ‘rule-based mode’ for most
of the time

19. 2. New rules for computing

20. Thinking does not occur separately from being and acting. […]
We inhabit our bodies and they in turn inhabit the world, with
seamless connections back and forth.
- Paul Dourish

21. We should invent knowledge work that incorporates the body
- Bret Victor
The humane representation of thought (2014)

22. Embodied Interaction is the creation, manipulation, and
sharing of meaning through engaged interaction with
artefacts.
- Paul Dourish

23. Rule 1: Focus on meaning

24. Rule 1: Focus on meaning
Rule 2: Observable-and-reportable

25. Rule 1: Focus on meaning
Rule 2: Observable-and-reportable
Rule 3: Representations relate to the world

26. Rule 1: Focus on meaning
Rule 2: Observable-and-reportable
Rule 3: Representations should relate the world
Rule 4: Design for physicality

27. Rule 1: Focus on meaning
Rule 2: Observable-and-reportable
Rule 3: Representations should relate the world
Rule 4: Design for physicality
Rule 5: Design for places (not spaces)

28. Rule 1: Focus on meaning
Rule 2: Observable-and-reportable
Rule 3: Representations should relate the world
Rule 4: Design for physicality
Rule 5: Design for places
Rule 6: Design for collaboration

29. Rule 1: Focus on meaning
Rule 2: Observable-and-reportable
Rule 3: Representations should relate the world
Rule 4: Design for physicality
Rule 5: Design for places
Rule 6: Design for collaboration
Rule 7: Design for computation

30. Design for “the dynamic spatial representation of thought”
- Bret Victor
The humane representation of thought (2014)

31. 3. A workshop for understanding

32. Interactions are the low-level mechanisms by which people
explore, break down, analyze, and recombine information-
bearing components.
These interactions are helping people create knowledge,
develop understanding, and acquire insight from digital data.
- Karl Fast and Kamran Sedig
Interaction and epistemic potential of digital libraries (2011)

33. Through interaction with the world people gain understanding

34. Collect

35. Collect
Collect

36. Collect
Collect Fragment

37. Collect
Collect Fragment Annotate

38. Collect Comprehend

39. Filters
Comprehend › Filter

40. Comprehend › Filter
Linkable filters Magic lenses

41. Comprehend › Probe
Pop-ups

42. Comprehend › Probe
Pop-ups Semantic zoom

43. Collect Comprehend Focus

44. Cut
Focus

45. Rearrange
Focus

46. Focus
Rearrange Group

47. Collect Comprehend Focus Create

48. Compose
Create

49. Animate
Create

50. Recap
- We use our body and the space around us to think
- The design of computing should be based on our
body and our relation to space
- Through interaction we gain understanding

51. Reading and watching tips
- Deep interaction at UXBrighton (Youtube)
Karl Fast
- The humane representation of thought (Vimeo)
Bret Victor
- Where the action is: the foundations of embodied
interaction (Book)
Paul Dourish

52. Thank you!
Sjors Timmer
@sjors