sharon de la cruz asked us to examine a piece of technology in applications_class-2, and write the following about it:
Briefly describe the interactive technology you experienced. Provide context about what it is, how it works, and its intended purpose.
Background: Contextual Information: Provide details about the technology’s development, its place in the market, or how others are using it.
Personal Experience : Setting and Context: Describe the environment in which you interacted with the technology. Include relevant details like location, time, and social context (e.g., alone, with friends, at work). Interaction Description: Provide a detailed account of your interaction with the technology. Describe what you did, how the technology responded, and any notable events or features. Emotional and Cognitive Response: Reflect on your thoughts and feelings during the interaction. How did the technology affect you emotionally? Were there moments of frustration, excitement, or confusion? Connect it back to the interactive description Design and Usability: Analyze the design of the technology. Was it intuitive to use? Discuss elements like interface design, feedback mechanisms, and accessibility. Outcome: Discuss the immediate outcomes of the interaction. Did it fulfill its intended purpose? Were there any unexpected results?
Impact and Implications: Personal Impact: Reflect on how this experience has influenced your views on technology or changed your behavior. Have you continued to use the technology? Why or why not? What does it say about the future of interactive technology? How might this technology evolve, or what ethical considerations arise from its use?
response:
the computer-keyboard (not keyboard) is an input device for computing-machines. it was modeled after the typewriter, used in teleprinters & keypunches, and has become the norm for text-input between humans and computing-machines.
little innovation has happened to the keyboard since the 1800s. language-output through humans is primarily audible (or visible when written via an incredible display of dexterity of the human-hand), and, yet, the keyboard restricts itself to mechanical clickety-clack to produce some of the world’s best visible (readable) assortment of words (poems, books, programs, software, and what-not 1 ).
despite its inhumane design 2, the keyboard for me holds significant emotional value. in a world increasingly more distant & jumpy, it gives me infinite space to feel heard. there is no single high-value-moment of interaction that i can recall; but i have to acknowledge the growing assortment of everyday ones.
on interaction:
when you see a keyboard, it presents itself with all the characters a person has at their disposal to communicate. each view of the keyboard is a view of infinite possibilities, capable of being realised by strong intentions. sometimes, this is overwhelming (and can lead to a pause); but, more often, it is an opportunity.
fingers touch representations of immaterial objects (letterforms). each is equally important as the other, laid out in a pattern that made sense to an american man in 1873 3 . the rest is magic — a series of downward forces — into what can best be described as buttons — give a global-platform 4 to a human-being, without being assessed for their intellectual, social, psychological or emotional capabilities. in fact, the keyboard (when paired with the world-wide-web) is one of the most democratic tools on the planet.
the keyboard doesn’t just end there. buttons travel up, asking people to say more — to move to the next character until their communication is complete.
from the keyboard, to the future of interactive technology:
the fact that millions of human-beings still use a fancy typewriter sparks grim hope about the ‘future of interactive-technology’. i don’t know the best way for this technology to evolve, and it is too early for me to speculate about ‘ethical considerations’ without experimentation (or research about past-experimentation for that matter).
references:
Footnotes
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in fact, while most industries have gravitated towards typed-heritage, most constitutions are still handwritten: https://handwritingtheconstitution.com/the-constitutions-handwritten-significance-and-its-connection-to-risk-taking/ ↩
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wordplay borrowed from the title of jef raskin’s the humane interface: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface ↩
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christopher latham sholes designed the first commercially successful typewriter, which had a four-row qwerty-keyboard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholes_and_Glidden_typewriter ↩
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via the world-wide-web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web ↩