Far too many consumer technologies are proposed to "fix" perceived problems that users don't think they have. What if we start to design technology that celebrates the good stuff in our lives instead?
At the premiere user-centred design conference, CHI 2008, Andrea Grimes presented her paper, written with Richard Harper Celebratory Technology: New Directions for Food Research in HCI which got me thinking about just this issue.

Andrea and Richard point out that a lot of the experimental systems that address food implicitly seek to find and solve some problem the user has with food. They described a few experimental systems that have been developed in recent years. One tried to help users choose more nutritional food, so if you were making a recipe with bacon, it might encourage you to half the portion size to cut down on saturated fat. Another system sought to help the user cook complex recipes by offering guidance on timing to make sure the user didn't get distracted and make mistakes.

Now, both these systems have laudable goals. Who wouldn't want to eat better food and make fewer mistakes when cooking? But Andrea and Richard argue that this focus on helping users make mistakes displays a fundamental emphasis on correcting human frailties and failures through technology. And this emphasis, to me, radically reduces their appeal to users. Who wants a computer system nagging them everytime they pull out some chocolate from their cupboard? It'd be like living with Gillian McKeith, a fate surely worse than death.

Instead of focusing on 'correcting' human behaviour through technology, Andrea and Richard argue that we should look at aspects of human life that we want to celebrate. Food is a great example of this. For many people cooking is a fundamentally creative and satisfying act that gives them great please. Eating is also a very social occasion, that can strengthen family or friendship bonds. Why not design a system that focuses on these positive elements of our lives, and thereby enriches us as humans?   

Social eating.Want some?

A fridge could suggest new recipes for the ingredients inside it, a microwave might show you pictures of your grandmother when you're heating up some of her leftovers, family members might sit around a multimedia table and share videos and pictures of their day, supporting storytelling and anecdotes. Imagine if your kitchen helped you make and share memories with your family.

 Their fundamental point applies to all technologies that impact the home and our everyday life. I won't rant about this now, but I believe that far too many consumer technologies are proposed to "fix" perceived problems that users don't think they have. So here's a question for you: Apart from anything designed by Apple and Nintendo in the last few years, name one technology that takes a treasured part of your life and makes it better.

 (thanks to wickenden for the photo)