John Vines,
Transtechnology Research,
Room B312 Portland Square,
University of Plymouth,
Drake Circus,Plymouth,
PL4 8AA.
john.vines@plymouth.ac.uk
john.c.vines@googlemail.com
John Vines is a designer whom has been researching various effects that lifecourse has on people since 2004. He began his PhD in October 2007 at Transtechnology Research with a research focus on developing alternative strategies for designers to use when new technological objects for older people to participate with. Previous to this John studied at the University of Wales in Newport, completing a Bachelor’s in Three-Dimensional Design in 2005 and his Master’s in 2007. The underpinnings of his Master’s thesis was presented at the Include 2007 conference, organised by the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art, London, in April 2007.
Recent research output:
Joint paper to be presented at the Third International Workshop on Physicality at HCI 2009: Enacted Experience and Interaction Design: New Perspectives
Abstract: ‘Interaction design is now of sufficient maturity to warrant a critical discourse of its own. To date much of the published material which refers to interaction design has tended to reflect upon examples of its practice or to draw upon research done elsewhere (computer science or cognitive psychology for example) in order to give validity to its own accounts. Interaction design’s is a synergistic consequence of other fields which it uses in order to create its own creative and strategic practice; this is both its strength and weakness. Interaction design can become shaped by the fields it draws upon. The authors of this paper take a cautious view of the cognitive and user models that are typically applied in the development of interaction prototypes. Our ideas, presented here in the spirit of a critical conversation, are founded in an intellectual insistence that interaction design presents a strategic extension of an embodied model of the human as an enacted being. In this paper we outline a way by which interaction designers can understand their role to be an orchestration of that enaction, not merely a mechanistic organiser of ‚Äòperceptions‚Äô of, ‘behaviours’ of and the ‚Äòunderstandings‚Äô of, systems.’
Accepted submission for IASDR 2009 doctoral colloquium: The Ageing Present: Neurophysiological change and the relational affordances of technological objects.
Abstract: ‘This paper outlines a doctoral thesis investigating claims that difficulties older people encounter in comprehending new technologies may be accountable to a reduced cognitive and neurophysiological capacity that occurs in later life. The thesis questions whether understanding an individual‚Äôs experience of technology within a reduced and predetermined cognitive model is suitable in design methodologies attempting to alleviate these difficulties. A body of knowledge opposing this view is introduced arguing that neurophysiological change should not be considered through an internal schema but in the way it relates to the wider physiological and ecological context a person is situated within.’
Paper presentation: The failure of designers thinking about how we think: The problem of Human-Computer Interaction.
Vines, J. 2009. The failure of designers thinking about how we think: The problem of Human-Computer Interaction. Failed Design: What were they thinking, Bard Graduate Centre, New York, USA. 24 April 2009.
Abstract: This paper stems from the author questioning some of the ways that designers think how we think, particularly in the context of developing interactions between people and new technologies. Through looking at the role of designers thinking about how we think in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the paper notes that there is a division between two distinct models of human thought and consciousness; the model of the cognitive mind and the enacted world. The dominant model in HCI research, the cognitive model, claims that an individual’s thought process could be understood in a similar mechanical and computational manner as the technology. The alternative model of enaction claims that mechanizing the subject in such a way reduces the potential to understand and influence the unified, dynamic nature of lived human experience; however, this model appears to be seldom implemented within contemporary HCI design research. The paper intervenes to explain how the specific example of usability studies of older participants interacting with computing technologies might exemplify how the mechanization of the way people think produce a shortcoming in the HCI design process. The paper presents these shortcomings in the form of a dual failure; firstly, the perception of failure within an older persons cognitive abilities and, secondly, the failure of designers to recognize that the way in which they think people think may be an inherent flaw in their methodologies. The paper concludes by speculating that designers working on understanding and forming relationships between older people and new technologies might provide a suitable entrance point to introduce enactive principles into contemporary HCI discourse.
Accepted conference paper: Body, World and Affordance: Towards Engaging Technological Artefacts for Older Individuals.
Vines, J. 2009. Body, World and Affordance: Towards Engaging Technological Artefacts for Older Individuals. Nordes 2009: Engaging Artifacts, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway. 30 August -1 September 2009.
Abstract: ‘This paper addresses the problems older individuals have been observed to encounter when engaging with technological artefacts and how such difficulties may relate to the designers understanding of the normal cognitive ageing process of human beings. This paper suggests that these problems may not be the result of limited cognitive abilities of certain older individuals but rather the manner in which designers understand the complex relationship between the mind and actions in the world. The paper speculates that an alternative perspective on interactions as affordances that occur between the embodied individual and their ecology may benefit design methodologies deployed in creating engaging technological artefacts for older individuals.’
For more information on any of these papers, please email the author at john.vines@plymouth.ac.uk
For a full list of papers and presentations, please click here.
Major research project:
Aging Futures: Towards cognitively inclusive digital media products.
Project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The research discusses the ways in which cognitive changes over lifetime may affect how those aged above 70 years may interact with emerging-technology based products in differing ways those younger than them. The research situates itself within the context of a gradually ageing population within Western European society. Within this ageing population there is an apparent desire from older adults to participate with younger cohorts through emerging technologies. Yet there is an inability to do this due to a reduction of certain abilities throughout lifetime and an inflexibility of the products and services incorporating the technologies.
As a person ages there is a lessening of ability within a variety of high-level cognitive functions such as working memory and attention span. It could be suggested that these age-related cognitive alterations may be exaggerated by limitations of sensory-motor functions of the human body, such as poorer dexterity, muscle elasticity, hearing and eyesight loss. As these changes take affect there is a restriction of the neural fluidity necessary to acquire new knowledge, which is especially noteworthy above the age of 70. Such neural solidification provides situations where the skills required to negotiate new technologies are significantly impaired, creating differentials in levels of comprehension and expertise of new technologies between various ages. The research proceeds with a model of reasoning that claims we acquire categories and concepts of our experiences in the world, which duly affect the way in which we approach objects, artefacts or contexts in the future. It is claimed that the acquisition of such concepts may be at their strongest in the period of later adolescence and young adulthood.
The research will attempt to ameliorate the difficulties a person aged 70 or above may encounter with emerging technologies through an understanding of how their subjective micro history of technological interaction is constructed, in particular during the period of high conceptual acquisition. Through comprehension of altering levels of ability, expertise and knowledge throughout life-course, the research intends to develop a model for product designers to use as a methodology to integrate appropriate levels of flexibility within products and services incorporating new technologies inclusive of those aged 70 or above.