User Centered

So many issues, so little time.

First, I am a performer and it has become a fact of life that prior to each performance we must request the audience disable their cell phones. There are still jerks that don't do it or forget. However, there are still people who are just absolute idiots. Just a few nights ago I was watching a performance and someone's phone (or perhaps very loud watch) went off... it kept going off, it kept going off and finally stopped. Then like 2 minutes later IT STARTED AGAIN!

What brilliant asshole didn't turn off whatever was making the noise? They let it cycle through a second time. It was completely annoying and the show might have well stopped while we waited.

When people do it in movies, it is simply annoying. When they do it during a live performance, it's outrageous. It's completely distracting and can totally ruin a moment on stage, as it distracts the actors, crew and mostly the audience.

While I'd prefer not to have to single people out what are the other options. Cell phone jammers? I'm completely opposed to them. And some cell phones even interfere with the sound equipment being used on the stage, which is very annoying (bad enough being on headsets where cell phones constantly interfere).

Sadly, the only option would seem to be singling out audience members so they never do it again and make an example of them. I see no other solution. Perhaps a giant spotlight that automatically focused on the offending noise? ::evil grin::

As for the other issue, usability wise... all devices that make noise should be easily disabled. Whether it is my Palm Pilot alarm or my cell phone or my watch. It is bad enough for it to be going off, you should be able to quickly disable it.

I'd prefer the cell phone companies to make 'suggested silence areas' -- ya know, they can automatically update your time. Why not transmitters that automatically tell your cell phone that vibrate or silent would be a really good idea now. It could be optional, not a cell phone jammer.

Yeah, I like it... but cell phone companies could never agree on a standard to implement such a system. I would totally approve, something that automatically set my phone to vibrate in 'silence zones' -- ya know, like movies, theatre, concerts (non rock kind), hospitals, restaurants (non-fast food kind), libraries, speeches, etc... and zone IDs so you could override abusers of such a system. Something bluetoothy like.

Yeah, I like this idea, though I have no idea how it could be implemented. Doesn't seem like it should be THAT hard if phone hackers can send test codes to cell phones to remotely activate microphones and use them as bugs to listen in on conversations even when the phone isn't making a call.

Heh.

Ah- WillYum, that's not quite what I was suggesting. My idea was more along the lines of Smart phones, or any phone that has a calendar that people would actually be willing to use. In any event- when the appointment is created ("WillYum's peformance- friday a 8pm") the phone would set itself to vibrate during that block of time.

I'm imagining a world where MS Outlook (on desktop as well as smartphone) has an option (perhaps just after the appointment time/reminder options) that is something simple like: "Silent" or "do not disturb" that would be interpretted by Outlook and subsequently, your cell phone when it syncs up with your appointment (if using the desktop/sync method)- so during that chunk of time, it goes into silent mode, and then automagically turns itself back on after that time (that's actually my biggest problem is to remember to turn it back on again!)

Like I said- almost all things I'd ever take the tiem to create an appointment for in Outlook are time when I don't want my cell phone to go off. And if I did want it, I'd uncheck that option when I created my appointment.

Again- this assumes I would use Outlook for something like your afore mentioned Friday night performance- which- I'm pretty sure isn't common now... but just as important and distracting are the sales meetings and business appointments and work related things. Maybe if it would catch on, and cell phones actually had some good, usable calendars, (maybe starting with smart phones), it would catch on for somethign like personal appointments like "going to the movies with Michelle"

Small step, and just a rough draft- in any event, a "user centered" guy like me HATES to admit that singling out and mocking people is the only way to overcome this. I'm admitting in this post that this is a serious problem and something that even smart, considerate people occasionaly fall victim too. Maybe it is... maybe I'm asking too much of technology, and too little of us. But that's kinda what I do

But man- I do love a good WillYum rant!

Shell writes:


Using a calendar setting for volume control would create an extra step whenever you add an appointment - not practical for the type of person who forgets to turn their phone off in the theater. Also, if that appointment is cancelled and the user forgets to erase it (or change the volume setting within it) from their calendar, then oops, their phone has been turned off for the last two hours and they didn't even notice it.

I think, for this issue, we have to look at the easiest possible solution for the loser who forgets to turn his ringer off in the theater. Not even *I* forget to do that, and I'm not even close to being a paragon of responsibility. So keep it simple and give them a hard button switch like the Treo's, as you already mentioned.

Shelly-Shell,

Fair enough-

But lets set aside the "social" settings like movies and theaters- and just think about the workplace. Most corporate offices are living and breathing on Outlook calendars. If we take are Treos/Smartphones etc and we're already syncin' those appointment up, there's the "foot in the door" that I'm thinking of. When (in Outlook) you create an appointment, you already have a series of default options, like reminders. I'm thinking there could be another checkbox there for "Do not disturb" that is checked by default (or, integrated with the "Busy/Free/option...)

See http://my.opera.com/Eddie_Lopez/homes/files/dnd.gif

When you sync- the phone will vibrate or silence during that appointment time.

I do agree that the Treo-like hard switch, and diligent users are the best answer though.

Shell writes:

I'm with ya. I think it's a cool idea overall, but not really adding any value for the forgetful type. For the highly organized - yes... but now we're moving towards providing something for the anal and not the forgetful.

I'm gonna just throw this out there because it's interesting (but not practical, I could argue against this one too): How about a phone that adjusts its volume automically based on the sound around it? The quieter a room/area is, the lower your ringer goes. That idea turns me on for some reason, although of course it's not foolproof.

I agree- I'm all about trying to get technology to adjust to how we currently are doing thing to facilitate acceptance (see K and I's discussion on postal DNS a couple posts ago). That's why I'm thinking it might take off more easily in a workplace where we're already using desktop Outlook to create/edit appointments, and your phone is sync'd with no additional effort. You could default it so that all appointments have this "do not disturb"- so you get it for free. That's the only way I see my idea having any usefulness. By default, no extra steps added. Picture this- your sitting in a meeting and someones phone goes off. Subconsciously, everyone there is thinking "man- did I turn *my* ringer off?" and they reach in the pocket to check and see that it was turned off because of the blocked appointment time. *That* is a good user experience. It's small, and not likely at all outside of work, but nice.

RE- you idea:
That's not a bad idea overall (assuming it wouldn't be too power hungry adjusting the volume all the time) I think not in the context of this "cover your ass for you" type- but ambient volume would be good all the way around-

Car stereos have something similar based on speed, in theory it would be nice if your phone recognized there was a lot of noise around it and it needed to be louder.

I think it is a good idea overall, but since it's something that would have constantly 'poll' its environment (surrounding noise would constantly be changing, so it should be constantly adjusting- because the second you walk from the noisy city street into the library, you don't want your phone to wait 5 minutes to catch up), it would be power hungry- although, IANAEE (I'm not an electrical engineer)

Shell writes:

That's where the super battery steps in ;>

More than battery life though, it's an impractical idea because you don't *always* want your phone to be loud or soft depending on your environment. I can just see myself getting irritated every time the phone rings softly in the quiet bedroom and I can't hear it because I'm watching TV in the living room.

wait wait... once sec- you mean, you don't have your phone on your person 24 hours a day? You are *sooo* pre 2002.

I charge mine with a hand crank and solar panels- just to keep it within reach at all times.

Holy smokes- I just ran across this blog post that's relevant:
http://www.smallsurfaces.com/2006/06/ambient-sound-awareness/

bunq writes:

Hey, I just picked that "holy-smokes" blogosphere message up also...

but it was at:

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/06/hear_no_evil.php

which I traced back to the original post by Tim O'Rilley of publishing fame. Who more concretely posted Geroge Dyson's thoughts on a trip to Google... which mentioned something like, "...we didn't scan all of those books for human readers, but for AI..." (I paraphrased the HECK out of that quote, so take it as such) ... So Shell, I think ambient noise should just stay ambient to you and I for now, with no critical interpretation from mobile phones or non-organic items at the location.

AS FOR THE TOPIC:

I think that you are focusing too much on a Outlook based solution... even though I know you can clammer about how this can work for all computer user s... blah, blah... so I'd like for you all to think about web-based calendar solutions and how they would help. Also how would scheduling a meeting help for an impromptu night out to the local theater (humm... I just that impromptu thing would just have to stop)... The only way to make any sense of any of these things is to make the mobile phone the center of all actions needed to be preformed...

Thus, when entering a meeting you (have scheduled) you acknowledge your presence via mobile phone (push #110 then the green button) so the phone now knows what action to take. When you go to the theater (unscheduled romantic coolness) then your purchase your tickets via mobile phone (push #111-19.20 then the green button) so now the mobile phone knows what the correct quietness level will be for the appropriate action. Of course I left out all sorts of goodies (lil' things called details) but I think you can get the general drift of my idea. It would not to make the mobile phone "smarter" based on unrelated individual actions --like some unrelated calendaring solution sitting on a server somewhere that has to be queried all the time to see if you made changes. But by using your mobile in a way that actions can be controlled on immediately occurring events appropriately. Thus giving your mobile phone a context for it's behavior (God, I sound like a parent to a child... but, that's what I really mean!)

NJ

The only way to make any sense of any of these things is to make the mobile phone the center of all actions needed to be preformed...

I Agree. Like the mail posts, I think you've got the end goal in mind while I'm thinking of a "first step" kind of thing.

I was trying to get something for free. I mean- unless you're getting these benefits for free somehow, then there's no real point. We could propose hundreds of cool methods and technologies that are going to be more complicated and convoluted than just remembering to switch the phone to silent anyway.

It would not to make the mobile phone "smarter" based on unrelated individual actions --like some unrelated calendaring solution sitting on a server somewhere that has to be queried all the time to see if you made changes.

I specifically referred to smartphones- something that has a sync capability. As far as I know- they don't query for changes. They sync! In the context of what I was mentioning (again as a "first step/foot in the door"), how is a calendar not related to appointments/meetings?

Also how would scheduling a meeting help for an impromptu night out to the local theater

I have no answer for that. I don't even have a good answer to if it wasn't impromptu... but I believe I mentioned that.

Thus, when entering a meeting you (have scheduled) you acknowledge your presence via mobile phone (push #110 then the green button) so the phone now knows what action to take.

I don't get this...if you're going to go through the trouble to "acknowledge your presence", why not just set the phone to the appropriate setting?

...then your purchase your tickets via mobile phone (push #111-19.20 then the green button) so now the mobile phone knows what the correct quietness level will be for the appropriate action.

This sounds interesting- although I admit, I'm not pickin' up what you're puttin' down. So you're saying you teach your phone it's behavior based on context of actions? So in your proposed idea- you have a "context" such as "at the movies" -you teach it once what to do in that context and it will always know? If I'm not reading this correctly- set me straight.

bunq writes:

In response to your last question: Your right on dealing with the phone behavior based on the context to the immediately preceding action. But you would do little to "teach" the phone initially. But all things be configurable you could override any setting or what-not because there are exceptions to every situation. So the long version of what would happen for setting the phone silent during a movie would be.

1. Have the bright idea at 8:30p that you would like to take your girlfriend to the latest romantic movie ("The Breakup") after cooking her dinner.

2. Pop open your mobile phone and text the movie theater to purchase tickets for the 9:20p showing.

[IMPORTANT (and jumping from current reality)]
3. You receive a "silent text" back which schedules your phone to be silent from 9:20p to 11:15p --yep the time for previews for this particular theater have been taken into account.

[Back to reality]
4. Show up at the movie and enjoy the show, free of mobile phone interruptions.

*Silent Text -- An SMS message that your phone receives as instructions and not to deliver to you as Text

Pretty long and convoluted, eh? Now what happened is that the mobile phone knew that you were going to be scheduled at this time because you purchased tickets. So you get a "kill two birds with one stone," situation. You don't have to be organized (or rather "Highly Organized" as Shell said earlier) You just have to make a purchase and the schedule is made for you. So there is no syncing, no fore-thought, just an action of purchasing a ticket that takes place. Then in the background all the necessary scheduling takes place, you've supplied(via the "silent text") the appropriate context for it to happen.

That would be the answer to include having impromptu events managed, too... you need to provide a mechanism to use your phone to provide the contex of it's next few hours of operation, through a purchase or some-such.

---- Afterword ----

Now there would have to be two additional parties on-board in this situation, the mobile phone manufacturer and the company that is processing the payments for the movie ticket purchase. The current infrastructure exists for this to work with 95% of the "normal" or rather NON-smart phones out there --basic SMS messaging and a clock/calendar. But there hasn't been a coordinated effort (from what I've seen) to provide this service.

Note:
The same could happen for showing up for a meeting (using the phone to check-in)... because there are always exceptions, what happens if you schedule a meeting and at the last second you decide that you really need to finish the work you are working on now and not attend the meeting. Being that we are forgetful creatures (as mentioned in the original post) should we be required in the heat of the moment (yes, we are passionate about our work, right... *smile*) to remember to unschedule the meeting so that my phone will ring. So the Check-in provides the trigger for the previously scheduled meeting context to happen again, no syncing or previous setup other than to schedule the meeting. Or I guess we should just make the mobile phone vibrate when in "quiet mode"... because we all know you NEVER "hear" a phone vibrate in a quiet meeting.

NJ

bunq writes:

I also think tha mobile phones are moving in the wrong direction for mainstream development, while using the phone as a camera and mp3 player has some sex-appeal. A much better use of a mobile phone is a functional device that can be used to store and access external information. Such as remote payments and remote room control. Having those types of "power" on your hip is much more hip in my opionin than a sh*** camera.

NJ

That's all good. Nothing further to add. One question though...

Now there would have to be two additional parties on-board in this situation, the mobile phone manufacturer and the company that is processing the payments for the movie ticket purchase.

...Like I said earlier- you are getting the silence for free. You've bought the tickets, and you get the trigger back (from the company processing the payment) with no additional effort. Note- by "for free" I'm referring to free of effort, brainpower, etc.. you don't have to remember to perform an action (that's what we're trying to avoid)

I'd certainly like to see this- I know it's not unusual in Japan, and certainly it's no stretch to buy with a browser and say- ticketmaster.com or something (not sure about secure/ecommerce on mobiles with today's technology)- but this greatly reduces the usefulness I think to only those "things," events, or actions that require a transaction of some sort to take place.

I maintain: that unless you are getting the "silence" for free, then it's no better than what we have now. Even if it understands what to do in different contexts, how are we setting the context? Unless that is free of effort, it's a non-starter IMO.

The only way to get it for free is to give a value added- in your case, tickets. Perhaps I'm not seeing the value added in other, more social scenarios that would parallel the "buy the tickets, get an indicator back"