Costelloe-KuehnCommentMemo10-12Kevin

The three literatures:

1) Engaging a lay audience, in a style similar to Collins and Pinch, in discussions about technological decision-making.
 * Other good examples? a) Molotch: How Stuff is Made and b) The Dangerous Rise of the SUV are two of the more "popular" texts I remember reading for STS classes.
 * "...resist the temptation to lurch from technocracy to populism."
 * What does this mean?
 * "1) The Patriot missile was not functioning as advertised, but publicly was said to be functioning just fine - much of the software that is said to be accessible is barely accessible, and could be done much better."
 * Reminds me of Nate's writing this week on the dissonance between perceived and actual, media representations and number of court cases, etc. (moral panics).

2) How individuals are constrained or enabled through the use of technology - especially the internet. Code can be structured differently to yield a different experience in cyberspace.
 * Interesting connection between design of geographical space and informational architecture (i.e. Paris streets widened to better squash insurgency). Maybe talk to Jen about "landscape" as well?
 * Is "Code" also written in style accessible to lay audiences? What design decisions affect accessibility of a text? How could you design your own book so it is as accessible as possible? Maybe publish an audio version too?
 * ""In real space, we recognize how laws regulate - through constitutions, statutes, and other legal codes. In cyberspace we must understand how a different "code" regulates - how the software and hardware (i.e., the "code" of cyberspace) that make cyberspace what it is also regulate cyberspace as it is."
 * Reminds me a bit of Foucault. Punish --> Discipline. Law --> Code. Governmentality and Technologies of Power. I guess the question Foucault might ask Lessig would be: What other "codes" regulate the internet (culture, discourses, etc. the material, but also the semiotic.). Lessig seems to be all about "choices" and "design" by humans, but what forces might "speak through" the subject? I'm not sure how any of this really relates to the work you're interested in doing, empirically. Lessig does acknowledge that choice isn't totally "free," He writes about Law / architecture / norms / market forces shape individual behavior.

3) the design of everyday things
 * the term "path dependence" comes to mind.
 * "usability" might be much better than "accessibility" for your work. in the literature on the digital divide i have seen a shift to usability.
 * I'm curious about the framing and audience of Norman's book. Is he largely writing for designers? Is the text used in design classrooms? Would you like to talk to these audiences?
 * A few more possible tenets of good design off the top of my head:
 * provide space for creativity and play
 * enable the user to produce something, not just consume. interactivity.
 * enable communication, collaboration
 * contain surprises and emotional connections. perhaps help the user question his or her original intentions.
 * Some of the advice that Norman offers might be caught in a double bind. It may enable one desirable feature, but constrain another. How are these choices negotiated when there is no clearly "universal" criteria by which to weigh varying goals?
 * 201: For tasks that can't be automated or made to be intuitive, standardize them - analog clocks are not intuitive, but they are standardized, so we know how to read them
 * but standardization can sometimes be boring, the automation of tasks can be alienating, etc.
 * 204: Some things should be deliberately difficult to use, such as medicine bottles (to prevent children from opening them), doors meant to keep people in (elderly, insane)
 * 216: Exploit constraints so that the user thinks that there is only one possible action - the right action - and that performing the right action is intuitive and obvious
 * but could clash with goal of enabling creativity.