I’m excited to present a talk on Calm Technology at O’Reilly’s OSCON in Portland, Oregon next week! With Designing Calm Technology from O’Reilly books due out later this fall, it will be fun to meet up and discuss what’s covered in the book.

What?
Designing Calm Technology
When?
5:00pm–5:40pm Thursday, 07/23/2015
Where?
Design D137/138

Session Description

Calm Technology will be released by O’Reilly books in late October 2015!

Our world is made of information that competes for our attention. What is needed? What is not? We cannot interact with our everyday life in the same way we interact with a desktop computer. The terms calm computing and calm technology were coined in 1995 by PARC Researchers Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown in reaction to the increasing complexities that information technologies were creating.

Calm technology describes a state of technological maturity where a user’s primary task is not computing, but being human. The idea behind calm technology is to have smarter people, not things. Technology shouldn’t require all of our attention, just some of it, and only when necessary.

How can our devices take advantage of location, proximity and haptics to help improve our lives instead of get in the way? How can designers make apps “ambient” while respecting privacy and security? This talk will cover how to use principles of calm technology to design the next generation of connected devices. We’ll look at notification styles, compressing information into other senses, and designing for the least amount of cognitive overhead.

Who is this session for?

This session is relevant for anyone that actively builds or makes decisions about technology. Participants should have some experience building products or working on product teams in a design, engineering or management role.

Will you be in town for OSCON in Portland, Oregon next week? If so, I’d love to meet up! Reach out to me on Twitter @caseorganic.

Posted on July 19, 2015 by caseorganic