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This article discusses some of the aims of the i³ initiative in an informal way. It presents the main ideas of the initiative with illustrative examples, and draws conclusions about what will be expected to emerge from it.
The i³ initiative aims at developing new human-centred interfaces for interacting with information, aimed at the broad population.
The above sentence contains many concepts. First let's look at the accent on the broad population. If the information society is to work then it must apply to all society - not just the select few. A key to making this happen is ensuring accessibility, participation and ease of use for all. For this to happen, new approaches for interacting with information are needed that will leap beyond the present-day solutions. In the past the traditional approach has been to design interfaces that assume technically knowledgeable users, and hoping that this will extend outside of that sphere. In contrast, i³ specifically targets the broad population and specifically excludes specialist use. For example, it excludes work on new interfaces for pilots, but would consider work on interfaces for pilots in their non-specialist role, for example in the home. To hope to arrive at new interaction paradigms for the broad population there must be a long term view that intertwines human, societal and technological factors in an iterative manner right from the start.
In the initiative the term "information" is taken in the broad sense of the word, embracing information that is mediated through communication with people, through participation in entertainment, or through tele-services. It does not simply refer to the traditional interpretation of "a user getting information from a data-base". Also the term "human-centred" is employed and the term "user" is avoided. Specifically, this means that the future interfaces research and development should be based around the fundamental physical, cognitive and behavioural aspects of humans and will enable bidirectional interaction, allowing information to be given and received in natural and effective ways. In addition this means that the interfaces will be designed for people in their environments and will have a "look", "sound" and "feel" appropriate to their uses. All these aspects should contribute to future interfaces having the role of a mediating influence for human activity and interaction, rather than simply a tool that permits the passive consumption of information.
"Human-centredness" is not only a passive concept it is also a dynamic one: it encompasses the notion of empowering the lives of people. Empowerment is further reaching than simply enriching the individual - it also enables the individual to act and be able to do things that he or she could not do before. Examples of interfaces that empower an individual could include ones that can act as personal "guides" by offering a range of services such as real-time consultation or augmenting personal knowledge. To empower an individual an interface has to adapt to the personal preference of the individual, for example, by pro-actively searching and filtering information to suit a personal profile, or by being easily customisable to suit fashion or personal image. It could also provide controllable degrees of privacy and security. In essence, the term human-centred aims to place the human, human values and human activities as the central driving force of technological development.
In order to try and bring about some of the changes mentioned above, the initiative aims at a radical departure from present-day man-machine interface concepts and does this under the assumption that this can only be done through a long term research effort guided by a long term vision. Although it is appreciated that some improvements can be made through incremental improvements to present-day interface scenarios - this will not lead to the "quantum leap" required for new interfaces of the information age. This will be an age in which both the value and quantity of information will have multiplied exponentially compared to our present day levels.
What do new paradigms mean in the context of interfaces? What is meant is a completely new way of interacting with information or people, mediated by technology. An example from the recent past illustrates this. Let's take an example from the evolution of human computer interface: consider the simple command line input that many of us have used. This consisted of a line at which a set of commands could be typed. We can take this as one paradigm for human-computer interaction. Now, "incremental approaches" would take and try and improve command line input as much as possible - various comments could be used to help editing on one line or perhaps editing on many lines could be possible. However, these improvements will not take us very far - what is needed is a "quantum leap" that takes us out of the command line paradigm into a new one: in our case, the "Windows/Desk Top" paradigm, which we can say is the current paradigm for human-computer interaction. Here, instead of forcing a human to use something close to a "machine language", it used the analogy of the Desk Top that is displayed, and can be interacted with on the screen using icons, a mouse, and so on. Moving from one paradigm to the next took a long term investment that was guided by a more user-centred vision of mapping the office Desk Top into the interface. By analogy, i³ aims at developing the new interaction paradigms necessary for the information society of the future.
For such new paradigms to be given a chance of emerging, new guiding visions are necessary. For this reason, i³ first calls for new human-centred visions/masterplans for future interfaces and then calls for projects that will carry out the work guided by the very best of these visions. It principally consists of two stages: a call for schemata and a call for projects
Evaluate and select a small number of schemata (January/February 1996).
Elaborate and finalise the selected schemata in agreement with the Commission (March - June 1996).
This will result in long-term research projects covering areas such as computer science, cognitive psychology, engineering, art and design, that will be harnessed and guided by a long term human centred vision and masterplan. This description of a new vision as well as a master-plan of how to implement it is referred to as a schema. In fact there is a similar procedure used in architectural competitions for the execution of public buildings. In this case too, vision must precede implementation similarly. The first stage is a competition for visions of a future building described by an esquisse and overall costing. The best of these submissions are then asked to elaborate and refine their work, and the best is chosen. Then follows the second phase, when there are calls to tender for the site contractors, which carry out all aspects of building, implementing the plans and seeing the vision through to reality. Needless to say, we would have little vision if all building were started by simply laying the bricks without an over-riding concept.
Notable features of schemata will probably include: a genuine notion of a bi-directional approach to interfaces, in contrast to the asymmetric "active service provider feeding information to the passive user" view; a strong influence of design cultures, together with a non-linear plan for coupling technical innovation with citizen participation; as well as care to channel technological innovation within a human-centred vision, thereby setting the basis for discovering new interaction paradigms.
It is difficult to describe specifically what the initiative will provide until the schemata have been selected and elaborated on; however, some general statements will hold. The projects that will implement the schemata will aim to deliver new models, new techniques and new technologies that could, if successful, constitute the necessary building blocks for the interface development of tomorrow. Clearly the initiative does not intend i³ projects to immediately lead to interface products, but will lead to results from which future product development could evolve; these "results" would typically take the form of demonstrators or research prototypes. Results from i³ projects could thus feed into the downstream programmes of Esprit or ACTS, in the further development of such research. In addition the models, techniques and insights gained from i³ projects could provide input for future telematics projects that might integrate, test and deploy future applications in the user context.
The URL of this document is /esprit/src/eyeref.htm
It was last updated on 9 August 1996, and is maintained by Jakub Wejchert - jakub.wejchert@dg3.cec.be