CMU@CHI: HCII, Microsoft Research Explore Slow Technology
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Storing and instantly accessing thousands of photos online has become a common luxury, but sometimes the sheer size of these photo archives can be intimidating. Researchers from the HCII and Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, will present findings next week at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Toronto that suggest people might enjoy their photo collections more if they relinquish control over and them and learn to wait.
The 14-month study showed that people reflected more on past events and developed a renewed interest in their online photos when a device called Photobox randomly printed four or five of those photos at varying intervals each month. Though the study involved just a handful of households, the researchers said their findings suggest that, in a world where technology is always on, people sometimes find value in taking it slow.
“We have all these devices — smartphones, touchpads, televisions — that are always competing for our attention,” said Will Odom, an HCII Ph.D. student who interned at Microsoft Research, Cambridge. “People who had Photobox in their homes came to appreciate the usefulness of a technology that is in the background.”
Odom and his collaborators — including associate professors of HCII and design Jodi Forlizzi and John Zimmerman, and researchers at the University of Nottingham and Newcastle University, will present their findings April 29.
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