Nell Boyce writes about projects that are designing mobile phones to be more aware of people’s context, so as to be able to make thte devices interrupt people at more salient times. Designing technology to make deeply social judgements (like when you’re open to being interrupted by a phone call) is a very difficult task. Designing technology to assist people help make those social judgments is much more likely to succeed.
“The trouble is, there’s always an exception that even a smart phone might not understand. Maybe you hate to take calls at the gym, but then one day your daughter tries to call from the emergency room. That’s why Siewiorek plans to give his device one important feature. It’s a little something that he calls the “Don’t you ever do that to me again” button. He says that by pressing this button, a person can tell the phone when it’s made an error in judgment: “Just like maybe an assistant, you’re going to politely tell them, ‘Don’t do that to me again, you tried something, but that’s not what I want.’””
Link: Crafting a smarter, gentler cell phone (npr.org)
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