Interaction 16

When labelling a product smart, we charge it with assumptions that change the way we interact with it and we charge it with expectations that influence the way we experience its flaws. Experiences with “smart” products seems to converge into a passive taking over of tasks that hides all the complexity and control behind “simple” interfaces.
How do we design for a future where smart will not always be perfect or so passive?
What interfaces can we design to avoid turning people into unaware and passive bystanders? How can a product adapt its smartness to a range of various users’ profile in order to fit their culture / desires / situations?
In this dual talk Nicolas Nova (Near Future Laboratory) and Simone Rebaudengo (automato.farm, frog) will discuss the role of term smart, its uses and misuses. By contrasting technological flops with speculative scenarios and by showing how to design deeper and deeper under the hood of smartness, attendants will learn the key questions to ask when designing smart behaviors and the complexities that will emerge in a future of smart frictions.