Driving the Family: Empowering the Family Technology Lead

摘要

Advances in technology continually increase the ability, but also the complexity of consumer electronics. This is especially true when several devices must be configured to work together, such as a digital TV and satellite box. Manufacturers of consumer electronics attempt to remedy this by designing interfaces that consolidate multiple, complex user interfaces into a single, simple interface. However, the problem remains that end-users are still expected to configure and learn to operate these new interfaces on their own. This paper addresses the problem by proposing a radically new goal in terms of user interfaces for in-home, networked consumer electronics. Instead of trying and failing to make interfaces simple enough for everyone to use, we propose making interfaces that allow a "technology lead"-the person in the family responsible for supporting the technology-to more easily administer devices in his or her own home and in the homes of other family members. In Japan, where this study is taking place, user-centered research methods show that families usually have a single technology lead who is challenged with supporting people remotely in several homes. By enabling the technology lead to remotely support family members at a distance, the natural family dynamic can be used to support users who either find the new breed of consumer electronics too difficult to learn or do not wish to invest the time to learn how they work.