computational technology as design material

(After reading "Abstract Information Appliances")
What computational technology to interaction designers is like what paint is to painters, or what sound is to musicians. It is a type of material for expressions. While in the field of computer science, some fundamental design aspects such as aesthetical considerations are easily hidden and forgotten. It might be not a big deal for traditional computers, which were almost exclusively used by a few experts to do computaitons. However, with the popularity of computers, when HCI is more and more of a concern, the design decision we make for computational technology can not be reduced to issues of functinality, performance, usability and user requirements anymore, other design choices such as aesthetic concerns should also be involved. Expressions and functionality - what is their relationship in computational technology?

Aesthetics conerns the formal reasons explaining and describing the appearance of given things. The concerns include structure and composition, use of material, overall consistency, etc. They are the basis to analyse how the choices are made and for what reason.

When computational technology is seen as only means for implementing some practical functionality, many aesthetical decisions become mere consequences of other concerns. However, since now we live with them as they surround us all times and condition the way we live, the expressional part becomes important because they form the basis for the presence of these things.

HCI has borrowed rudimentary asesthetics from areas such as graphic design, a disciplinary dominated by "design by drawing". It is obviously important for screen dominated interaction, however, it does not tell too much about the computational aspects of this new matieral.

Material is to build things. Form is the appearance what material builds. What is involved in making something computational in appearance? Programs, interactive appearance and hardware?

The inherent characteristics of computational technology as a new design material are the temporal structures enabled by programs. However, this temporal structures have to be manifested in space to make it perceivable, like the temporal structure of music is manifested as sound that is generated as musicians play their intruments. We need to combine other materials to manifest the temporal structures as spatial structures such as on a screen, or as sound coming from speakers.

As any new materials, this new material will challenge existing ideas about aesthetics and design as it opens up new possibilities. Traditionally, we start with a general notion of function and some general usability criteria, we use stepwise refinements that finally result in a concrete desing, which then can be subject to test using prototypes. These concrete things have appearances. They talk to us as we live with them. This expressiveness is more or less of design choices? Where do these design choices come from and how are they related to functionality and usability?

The function-expression-circle: expressions define functionality while functionality explain design expression. The functionalist leitmotif "form follows functions" is a a leitmotif that emphasizes functionality and where we start at the "function" side of the circle. What if we turn the functionalist leitimotif upside-down and try to work from the other end of the spectrum. Thus, we can use the following leitmotif to guide such an investigation: function resides in the expression of things.

The two methodological exercises in redefining and rediscovering the role of aesthetics in the design of computational things: "discovering functionality in a given expression" and "discovering expressionals in appliance".