the framework age

Blues

BeBop

Jazz FusionAncient

DIGITAL

SwingBAROQUE

Free-form Jazz

Classical

SwingRetro FunkBebop

BeBopDIGITALFree-form Jazz SwingRetro Funk Something

ModalClassical

DIGITAL

SwingBAROQUE

Free-form JazzClassicalTango

RomanticSwing

ImprovisationLatin Jazz

BAROQUE

Ragtime DanceRetro Funk Folk Music

DIGITAL

BAROQUE

Avant-Garde JazzSwing

Retro Funk

ClassicalFree JazzHard bop

DIXIELAND

Classical JazzClassical

Classical

Acid Jazz

Swing

Classical

Big Band

Ballet

Third StreamRetro Funk

MIDI

Hard bop

SOUL

The Framework AgeNotes on detecting, adapting, & improvising

Liz DanzicoWebstock 2008

Me: Information architect Happy Cog

Editor Rosenfeld Media, A Brief Message

Educator The School of Visual Arts

Board member AIGA, IA Institute

Emeritus Boxes and Arrows

You

DetectableDetectable

Present Additive Performance

Defining frameworksWHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

1

As we made the transition from print to web, we took some of the principles with us.

Because we’re designing for the web, we’ve let go of some of that control.

http://pieaia.org

We’re not designing artifacts.

We’re not designing artifacts.We’re designing frameworks.

We’re not designing artifacts.We’re designing frameworks.And frameworks require users to adopt, to adapt, to improvise.

Framework:Provides uninscribed and detectable cues that loosely govern a set of actions or interactions

Interfaces are no longer telling the story; they must provide places that enable storytelling to happen.

Thus: users mustadapt, adopt, improvise.

This is a story about people and technology. This is a story about people and technology. With music.

A!ordances in musicLEARNING FROM JAZZ

2

An aside:

An aside:Jazz music was a reprieve from Classical music which had dominated the last centuries.

Classical composition:

Classical music composition didn’t leave room for participation.

Jazz notation:

Courtesy dancohen, YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=2kotK9FNEYU)Courtesy Dan Cohen

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2kotK9FNEYU

Modal jazz leaves spaces between the notes for artists to improvise. Liberally.

Q Q Q

V4

4

q qq q q q

“You will hear something close to pure spontaneity in these performances.”

— Bill Evans, Kind of Blue, pianist

“Creative Instability”

Before the advent of writing, epic storytellers relied on music patterns to pass along stories =oral tradition

“Composition in performance”

“We are witnessing the reemergence in electronic form of oral patterns that have been hiding

in plain sight for generations.”

— Alex Wright, Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages

3 Designing for improvisationONLINE EVIDENCE

Whether sidewalks, music, or the oral tradition, there are unscripted frameworks that allow improvisation to happen.

DetectableDetectable

Present Additive Performance

Detectable, or “a lot with a little”

1 2 3 4

http://basecamphq.com

http://backpackit.com

http://geni.com

“That’s when I know WordPress is doing its job:

when people aren’t even aware they’re using it because

they’re so busy using it!”

—Mark Jaquith, Automattic

http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/engine-awareness/

http://wordpress.org

Present, or “in real-time”

http://subtraction.com/archives/2006/0929_ripped_from_.php

http://signalvnoise.com

http://boxesandarrows.com

Additive, or “part of a whole”

http://abriefmessage.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/

24 HOURS4,000 unique tags 19,000 total tags500 comments

Performance, or “the audience is always right”

“Miles Davis presents ... frameworks which are exquisite in their simplicity and yet contain all

that is necessary to stimulate performance with sure reference to

the primary conception.”

— Bill Evans, Kind of Blue

http://virb.com

http://murdersandmysteries.com

http://weightshift.com

DetectableDetectable

Present Additive Performance

4 Tools and principles for useHOW DO WE DO IT?

“All art is performance art, which is to say that it is first and foremost

activity. It is the act of art … that is important, not the created object.”

—Christopher Small, Musicking

Contextual inquiry Participatory design Agile development User-centered design Participatory design Persona creation Agile development User research UCD models User-centered design Throw it against the wall Participatory design Agile development Contextual inquiry Participatory design Persona creation User research UCD models Participatory design Agile development User centered design Persona creation Agile development User research UCD models User-centered design Agile development Participatory design Contextual inquiry Persona creation Agile development User research UCD models User centered design Participatory design Agile development Persona creation Intuition Agile development User research UCD models Paper prototyping Persona creation Persona creation Contextual inquiry User research UCD models User-centered design Participatory design Agile development Contextual inquiry Design design Persona creation Agile

Contextual inquiry Participatory design Agile development User-centered design Participatory design Persona creation Agile development User research UCD models User-centered design Throw it against the wall Participatory design Agile development Contextual inquiry Participatory design Persona creation User research UCD models Participatory design Agile development User centered design Persona creation Agile development User research UCD models User-centered design Agile development Participatory design Contextual inquiry Persona creation Agile development User research UCD models User centered design Participatory design Agile development Persona creation Intuition Agile development User research UCD models Paper prototyping Persona creation Persona creation Contextual inquiry User research UCD models User-centered design Participatory design Agile development Contextual inquiry Design design Persona creation Agile

User-centered design:The needs, wants, and limitations of the end user are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

Participatory design:Actively involves users in the design process to help ensure that the product designed meets their needs and is usable.

“In a world that is not predictable, improvisation and evolution

are more than a luxury: they are a necessity.”

—Elisa Giaccardi and Gerhard Fischer, Creativity and Evolution: A Metadesign

Solution

All the focus has been on the design process.

Design Release Use

Not on how design evolves with use.

ReleaseDesign Use

Compose

This is not unlike the tension between print versus the web.

Transmit Interpret

Or how we communicatedprior to the advent of writing.

Compose

Transmit

Interpret

Brandon Shauer, IA Summit 2006

Businessrequirements

Structure Design Test Build Launch

User needs

User story

Rules of

Beta Observeand Interact

Re-Build and

Group and user needs

Designing for improvisation:Requires a co-adaptive process between users and systems — a democratization of the creative process.

Improv

Time

Modal Jazz

Bebop

Classical Music

Music: Transition to frameworks(A gross generalization)

Classical Music?

User Participation

User participation: Transition to frameworks

Amazon Yahoo!

Facebook

Time

Flickr

BloggereBay

Yahoo! Del.icio.us

Wikipedia

Web 2.0

User Participation

Amazon Yahoo!

Facebook

Time

Flickr

BloggereBay

Yahoo! Del.icio.us

Wikipedia

Web 2.0

Build process: Transition to frameworks(Another gross generalization)

Development Frameworks

Time

User Participation

Flickr

Wikis

Yahoo! Directory

Brochure Sites Portals

Citizen Journalism

Design process: Transition to frameworks

Users?

Participatorydesign

Designing for improvisation

User-centereddesign

UserSophistication

Time

Improvisationfacilitators?

1 Learn from familiar models—cities, music, traditions.

2 Create frameworks that are perceptible, present-focused, additive, communal.

3 Consider new ways of working for new kinds of a!ordances.

End.THANK YOU!

Liz Danzicoliz@bobulate.com