The way we think we think

10 August 2017

The way we think we think thoughts on representation and meaning, and some implications for designing systems for human use

Andrew Gibson :: Research Fellow - Reflective Writing Analytics, UTS

How do YOU think?

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What we make… … and how we think

✤ Society influences how we think our brains (George Zarkadakis)

✤ The hydraulic brain (300BC)

✤ The mechanical brain (1500)

✤ The electronic brain (1700)

✤ The computer brain (1940)

✤ The information brain (1950)https://www.flickr.com/photos/cblue98/

“But here is what we are not born with: information, data, rules, software, knowledge, lexicons, representations, algorithms, programs, models, memories, images, processors,

subroutines, encoders, decoders, symbols, or buffers – design elements that allow digital computers to behave somewhat intelligently. Not only are we not born with

such things, we also don’t develop them – ever.”

– Robert Epstein (aeon.co)

A familiar UX

✤ What does this represent?

✤ What does it mean?

✤ Does the representation result in the meaning?

✤ What does it mean when the speedo shows 120 km/hr?

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this one should have some guts

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slow down

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it’s broken

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- Context

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+ Context

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What is the UX for the driver?

✤ Consider a UX where the meaning is centred on safety rather than speed

✤ What would this look like?

✤ What the implications of this change for UX design?

✤ What would need to change in the system to facilitate this UX?

From representation, to meaning

✤ In present cars, where is the path from representation (speedo) to meaning (safety)?

✤ In the future scenario, where is the path to meaning?

If we think…

✤ meaning is not “computed” or “accessed”, but constructed - then everyone could construct different meaning. How do we ensure common meaning?

✤ meaning construction takes time - then we may not understand fast enough. How do we ensure meaning in time?

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Implications

✤ Sharing meaning-making between technology and human

✤ Replacing slow human processes with fast computational processes

✤ What would these approaches mean for UX design?

✤ What if we get it wrong in this space?

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A real life example

✤ Learning Analytics - specifically Reflective Writing Analytics

✤ Feedback to students requires a shared meaning-making

✤ It needs to be easy for students to arrive at the desired meaning.

✤ Meaning evolution, rather than meaning finding, or even meaning wishfulness!!

✤ The need for system architecture design to enable a suitable UX

✤ Also, social infrastructure - meaning construction within a social environment

Takeaways

✤ Knowledge representation is NOT directly linked to Meaning construction

✤ Manipulation of representation has limited influence on meaning

✤ Meaning can be negotiated socio-technically

@andrewresearchhttp://andrewresearch.net https://www.flickr.com/photos/11304375@N07/