Rethinking design through the lens of embodied cognition provides a novel way of understanding human interaction with technology.
In this book, Christopher Baber uses embodied cognition as a lens through which to view both how designers engage in creative practices and how people use designed artifacts. This view of cognition as enactive, embedded, situated, or distributed, without recourse to internal representations, provides a theoretical grounding that makes possible a richer account of human interaction with technology. This understanding of everyday interactions with things in the world reveals opportunities for design to intervene. Moreover, Baber argues, design is an embodied activity in which the continual engagement between designers and their materials is at the heart of design practice.
Baber proposes that design and creativity should be considered in dynamic, rather than discrete, terms and explores “task ecologies”—the concept of environment as it relates to embodied cognition. He uses a theory of affordance as an essential premise for design practice, arguing that affordances are neither form nor function but arise from the dynamics within the human-artifact-environment system. Baber explores agency and intent of smart devices and implications of tangible user interfaces and activity recognition for human-computer interaction. He proposes a systems view of human-artifact-environment interactions—to focus on any one component or pairing misses the subtleties of these interactions. The boundaries between components remain, but the borders that allow exchange of information and action are permeable, which gives rise to synergies and interactions.
Author(s): Christopher Baber
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 212
City: Cambridge
Contents
Preface
1. “Cut the Pie Any Way You Like, ‘Meanings’ Just Ain’t in the Head!”
Introduction
Cognition and Embodiment
What Is Cognition, If It Is Not Information Processing?
What Is Wrong with “Mental Models”?
What Information Is Being Processed?
What Is the “Mark of the Cognitive”?
Perspectives on Embodied Cognition
Radical Embodied Cognitive Science
2. Thinking, Acting, Creating
Introduction
Convergent and Divergent Thinking
Problem-Solving
Design Thinking
Design and Cognition as Multi-Objective Satisfaction
The Roles of Physical Action in Problem-Solving
The Craft of Design
3. Understanding Task Ecologies
Introduction
The Environment as an Ecology
How Do Actions and Ecologies Interact?
Responding to Ecologies
Salience, Action, and Information-as-Context
Brunswik’s Lens Model
Recognition-Primed Decision-Making
A “Task Ecology”
Studying Task Ecologies
4. Affordance
Affordances Are Neither Form nor Function
Formal Descriptions of Affordance
Affordance, Capability, and Activity-Relevant Features
Skilled Intentionality Framework
The Politics of Affordance
Affordances as Information
Can Affordances Be Designed?
5. Ecological Interface Design
Introduction
Cognitive Work Analysis
Decision Ladders and Decision Strategies
Defining Information to Support “Skill-Based Activity”
Ecological Interface Design
Are Ecological Interface Designs Better than Traditional Designs?
What Does Ecological Interface Design Tell Us about Radical Embodied Cognitive Science (and Vice Versa)?
6. Things That Think and Act
Introduction
Tangible User Interfaces
Autonomy and “Smart” Technology
Being Digital
The “Internet of Things”
Levels of Automation
The Irony of Automation
Agency and Artifacts
Agency, Responsibility, and Theories of Mind
7. Recognizing Activity and Intent
Introduction
Reaching for Artifacts
Control Theory and the Human-Artifact-Environment System
Kalman Filters
The Bayesian Brain
The Bayesian Body
Computer Recognition of Human Activity
Recognizing Actions and Inferring Thoughts
8. Eventually Everything Connects
Introduction
Creativity and Design
The Importance of Task Ecologies
Affordances
Activity and Intent
What Is Wrong with “User-Centered” Design?
What Can Design and Creativity Tell Radical Embodied Cognitive Science?
Notes
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Index
