HCI 2004 Keynote

Convivial Systems: Designing Socially Rich Digital Environments

Thomas Erickson
Social Computing Group
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center

As humans, we are fundamentally social creatures. We are exquisitely sensitive to the actions and interactions of those around us. And we are skilled at interpreting the traces that previous activity has left in its wake. Such social cues provide the grist for inferences that guide us in planning, coordinating and conducting our daily activities. Social information is more than just a resource for guiding action-it plays a fundamental role in how we experience the world. When a theatre audience rises to give a standing ovation, it produces a powerful emotional impact – as well as an almost palpable pressure towards conformity amongst those who remain seated.

When we move from face to face interaction to digitally mediated interaction, however, everything changes. The subtle social cues that we use to guide and structure our face to face interactions are mostly absent. Although the web is used by millions of people, reading a web page is still primarily a solitary experience. Even when others are clearly present-as in a chat room or on a conference call-it is difficult to see who is present, who is paying attention, or who wishes to speak. It is particularly difficult to get a sense of the whole, of properties that-like mood, norms or customs-emerge from the collective behaviour of many people over time.

As an interaction designer, I am interested in ways of remedying this situation. I would like to understand how to support online experiences that have elements of the spontaneity, coherence, and emotional character found in face to face interaction. In this talk I discuss my explorations of these questions, drawing examples from empirical work, implemented systems, and conceptual design work. While there are no simple answers, I suggest that as venues of interaction increasingly expand into digital media, the challenge of designing inviting, convivial online environments becomes an increasingly important one for the HCI community to take on.

Thomas Erickson practices interaction design and research at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in New York, to whence he telecommutes from his home in Minneapolis. His current work involves studying and designing systems for supporting computer mediated communication (CMC) in groups and organizations, and his principle aim is to create systems that can mesh with the social processes that govern our daily communication practices. Erickson's approach to systems design is shaped by methods developed in HCI, and theories and representational techniques drawn from architecture and urban design. His theoretical and analytical approaches are drawn primarily from rhetoric and sociology. In addition to CMC, research interests include virtual communities, pattern languages, genre theory and interaction design. Over the last two decades Erickson has published about fifty refereed papers, and has been involved in the design of over a dozen systems ranging from advanced research prototypes to commercial products). Prior to joining IBM Research in 1997, he spent nine years at Apple Research, five years at startup called Software Products International, and before that five years studying Cognitive Psychology at University California, San Diego.