Monday’s interviews at CHI 2008
Luca Chittaro (blog), who covers the CHI 2008 conference in Florence for Novà , the innovation supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s business newspaper, continues his hectic schedule of interviews:
It’s all about the (digital) money
Interview with Scott Mainwaring (Intel Research)
Be they US dollars, Euros or Yens, paper bills are becoming anachronistic, as we use more and more credit cards, smart cards or even completely virtual currencies such as Linden Dollars in Second Life. But is this increase in the type and form of payments confusing for people? How do designers should approach topics like digital payments and virtual currencies?These and many other issues concerning digital money are being investigated by a collaboration among different researchers which include Scott Mainwaring and Wendy March (Intel Research), Bill Maurer and Yang Wang (University of California, Irvine), and Hsain Ilahiane (Iowa State University). They are presenting two papers today at CHI 2008.
Digital memories and lifelogging
An interview with Daniela Petrelli (University of Sheffield)
New technologies have made it possible to “lifelog” our existence, collecting and storing digital pictures, videos, text, copies of Web sites, and so on… But will this be as meaningful as the traditional process of keeping tangible memories of our life?Daniela Petrelli (Sheffield University) and her co-authors discuss about it in the paper they have presented this morning at CHI 2008.
Sustainable interaction design
An interview with Eli Blevis (University of Indiana)
The electronics industry has an increasing responsibility in the production of toxical components and e-waste. Careless strategies are leading to irresponsible designs such as the growing number of products which are sealed to deliberately prevent the user to change the battery. As a result, when the battery needs to be replaced, the user is forced to throw away the product and buy a new one.One of today’s sessions (called Green Day) at CHI 2008 has been devoted to sustainable design and users’ perception of sustainability. To understand the latter Kristin Hanks and colleagues (including Eli Blevis) at the University of Indiana has studied more than 400 students in the 18-21 age range, belonging to the so-called Net generation, a significant producer of e-waste. The results of the research, presented during the afternoon at CHI 2008 are not encouraging.
