Yesterday was World Usability Day 2009, so I joined the members of Bristol Usability Group (BUG) for ‘Futures Night’ at CX Partners. Not only was the evening an enjoyable mix of talk and debate about the future of the computing, but I also won the prize draw!
The evening began with Dave Ellender’s demonstration of the interactive prototyping tool Balsamiq Mockups. The tool allows the rapid creation of sketch style wireframes with an interactive preview mode for user testing. There was one free copy available to a lucky winner, which was me. Nice. I’m sure it will be of great use to us at Open, I can’t wait to try it out.
Video demonstration of Balsamiq Mockups.
Several five minute talks followed on the subject of computing in 2025. Whilst all were a little wide of the topic of usability, there were some very interesting and amusing ideas put forward. The theoretical possibilities of Artificial Intelligence and Singularity, and its role in human interaction with the web was a popular theme. The problem of ever increasing power usage in a world of diminishing resources, and possible changes in the way we use technology to cope was also discussed. Other topics included suggested improvements in the way we search and view vast quantities of data, and the possibility of ‘information underload’, a time when many of our decisions may be made for us. Food for thought.
The debate after focussed mainly around the current limitations of Artificial Intelligence and questions as to weather humans can, or will want to give up the information and control necessary for such far reaching advances in technology. I think I’ll wait and see.
Another great opportunity to meet more BUG folk. Thanks guys, I look forward to the next meeting.
