Book Reading #4 - HCI Remixed

Chapter 24: A Simulated Listening Typewriter: John Gould Plays Wizard of Oz
Author: Chris Schmandt
Venue: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Summary:
This article discusses speech recognition software.  The system used a "Wizard of Oz" approach, where a human was actually typing in the words behind the scenes.  The naive users disliked the smaller vocabulary  as opposed to discrete speech, while more experienced users disliked both.
Discussion:
This was fairly interesting. The "Wizard of Oz" approach was funny to me, and made me contemplate whether that is used in things I've seen today.

Chapter 25: Seeing the Hole in Space
Author: Steve Harrison
Venue: Virginia Tech
Summary:
This article discussed the origins of video chats.  The author visited with two visual artists working towards telecommunications and watched "The Hole in Space." This gave he and his group the idea for Media Space.
Discussion:
I thought this article was confusing. I found it hard to distinguish what he was trying to say. The fact that the two telecommunications people foresaw internet cafes/coffee houses was the most interesting portion to me. 


Chapter 26: Edward Tufte’s 1 + 1 = 3 
Author: Scott Jenson
Venue: Google, Mountain View, California
Summary:
The author compares how adding a second option can create an unwanted third alternative, similar to Tufte's 1+1=3.  Elevator open and close buttons are the example used, where the third alternative is being wrong.  The author suggests making the buttons more obvious or removing one of the buttons altogether.
Discussion:
I liked this article.  The point how the only people who truly want the extra options are programmers and managers struck home to me.  It emphasizes how as programmers we need to reduce the clutter and more is not always better.


Chapter 27: Typographic Space: A Fusion of Design and Technology
Author: Jodi Forlizzi
Venue: Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Summary:
This article discusses the origins of kinetic typography.  Words can be manipulated in size, presentation, and style to convey pitch, tempo, and loudness.
Discussion:
Overall this article was ok. Kinetic typography isn't overly interesting to me, but reading about the origins of something that is commonplace today was somewhat interesting.


Chapter 28: Making Sense of Sense Making
Author: Steve Whittaker
Venue: University of Sheffield, UK
Summary:
Whittaker discusses notions from A. Kidd made in 1994 that digital memory is useless and that computers are not good at making sense of the information.  While the first claim is clearly false, there are issues surrounding it such as how we use digital information.  The second is true to a degree, as we do not have ways to make sense of digital information, unless search is adequate.
Discussion:
I thought this one was funny because it tried to justify another person's false claims.  While the claims can be made broad to have some sort of justification, for the most part these claims were not good.  I don't understand how digital information could have been seen as useless at any point in time.


Chapter 34: Revisiting an Ethnocritical Approach to HCI: Verbal Privilege and Translation
Author: Michael J. Muller
Venue: IBM Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Summary:
This article compared HCI with ethnohistorians.  Both must translate between worlds of the less powerful and more powerful, must understand the users' concept of knowledge and how they use it, and understand why users make the decisions that they do.  The author then compares to Krupat's three major principles, multiculturalism, polyvocal polity, and heterogeneity. 
Discussion:
I found this article very boring.  Ethnohistory and ethnography just do not interest me. I understand the comparisons and how understanding others is crucial to HCI, but it just is not entertaining to read about.