Many new technologies are based on what companies and designers seem to think their users might want to do, or what they envision them wanting to do, but not as many are based on what people actually do, Ellen Isaacs told attendees at GigaOM's Mobilize conference on Thursday. As a principal scientist at the famous Palo Alto Research Corporation (PARC), a subsidiary of Xerox, Isaacs said part of her job involves watching what users do with their phones, tablets, computers and other technologies so that she can see where they aren't performing properly -- and in many cases, the Xerox ethnographer said, they simply aren't reflecting the way people actually use their devices.
It definitely is amazing how fast people have integrated devices like smart phones, tablets, and computers into every aspect of there lives. As time will progress, these devices will play an even bigger role to the point where we won't be able to function as part of society without having a device on us every moment. These devices have changed the way modern society works, how we understand the world, and how we accomplish tasks. My smartphone is my personal secretary; reminding me of what needs to be done, and providing me the tools to finish my tasks. I can see it in the future where we are talking to our device in conversation, telling them what we need and in reply they will obey our command. So, to make the device of the future as effective and useful as possible, we should look at our daily tasks and problems and see how we can design products that will take care of them for us.
