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/