Making ubiquitous computing visible

Abstract

invisibility. When done well, designing for invisibility leads to computing environments that are integrated into people's on-going practices, values, and aesthetic sensibilities. Invisible computing also often leverages implicit input from people, thereby minimizing the threshold of effort required to gain benefits from the system. However, invisible computing has many dangers as well. A worst-case scenario is a system that secretly collects information and disseminates that information inappropriately to others. This “big brother effect” has been the lingering menace for ubicomp work. Clearly such a system is not well-integrated into the social practices of its users. More subtle dangers of invisible computing are interfaces that do not give people the needed tools of awareness and control to comprehend and shape the behavior of the system. Too often ubicomp designers favor the benefits of implicit input without considering the dangers of invisibility. For example, a system that tracks the location of my cell phone may make it easier for others, including emergency assistance, to find me. However, without reasonable interfaces that convey how this information is disseminated and logged, I am left to trust that the system will “do the right thing.” This lack of awareness and control is not simply a privacy issue, characterized as “Do the wrong people know things about me?”, but it strikes fundamental issues in people understanding the capabilities of a system, and then being able to shape that system to meet their particular needs. Without the former (understanding the system), the latter (shaping the system) is impossible