Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Seriousness in human-computer activities is a thresholdy thing. “Seri-
ous” and “non-serious” or “playful” activities can occur within the same
context and at different stages in the same basic activity. I fool around with
the layout of a document, for instance, experimenting with different fonts
and paragraph styles, the placement of illustrations, perhaps even the struc-
tural divisions of the paper. At the point at which I make a creative decision
and wish to implement a certain aspect of the design, I experience a “mode
swing” (like a “mood swing,” only different) toward greater “seriousness.”
I may then swing back to a “fooling around” mode as I evaluate the effects
of a choice on the evolving document.
The advent of the regular-human-friendly search engines made a dif-
ferent sort of mode-shifting possible. Before the World Wide Web, compa-
nies like AOL created “walled gardens” with their own content and email
communities, safely encapsulated from the horrors of Gopher or File Trans-
fer Protocols (FTPs).
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The fi rst truly robust search engines for regular folk
(e.g., Lycos and Altavista) placed the human front and center as the “agent”
of the action. Ask Jeeves (1997) attempted to re-characterize a search en-
gine with a computer-based butler on top, but it was soon obvious that
Jeeves was simply a cartoon intended to create the
feeling
of being taken
care of. Jeeves' untimely demise demonstrated that emotional comfort may
be achieved in better ways. Reliability and robustness have become criteria
for good search engines, although we have made little progress to date in
creating search engines that can assess the truth value of their fi ndings. But
“search” does allow us to see that the experience of
fl ow
is not necessarily
disturbed when such shifts occur. Further, the experience of
searching
and
fi nding
has its own dramatic arc.
A dramatic approach need not be fuzzy or imprecise in its ability to
produce results. It is potentially capable of supporting both serious and
non-serious activities. Its evocative powers and even its ambiguities can be
harnessed to enhance rather than to impede people's serious goals, and to
create the possibility of surprise and delight—things that are rarely pro-
duced by exhaustive responses to crystal-clear specifi cations.
For many people whose way of working can be characterized as objec-
tive or scientifi c, the idea of employing an artistic approach is troublesome.
It's hard to say how artists do what they do. The process seems to consist
largely of imagination and inspiration, and there seems to be no forthright,
11. And relatively unable to feed the voracious appetite of consumerism for big data that is
gathered and recycled as targeted advertising today.
