Small Challenges for Usability and Sustainability
Today we have the honour of introducing Mr Erik Borälv as our guest blogger. Erik works as IT strategist for Vinnova in Stockholm. He has a great experience in the field of Usability and he has written an imposing amount of interesting news letters about this and I think that I have read all of them, and learnt a lot!! So enjoy Eriks blog:
The European Union (EU) is currently preparing a follow-up to the soon out-of-date i2010 strategy – the EU policy framework for the information society and media [1]. The strategy promotes the positive contribution that information and communication technologies (ICT) can make to the economy, society and personal quality of life. There will be a high-level conference in Sweden on renewing this strategy. The aim is a shared and updated European IT policy agenda by 2015 [2].
There is a study document prepared for this conference that highlights a number of policy areas:
1. The knowledge economy: driver of future wealth
2. The knowledge society: participation for all
3. Green ICT: support for an eco-efficient economy
4. Next generation infrastructure: balancing investment with competition
5. Soft infrastructure: investing in social capital
6. SMEs and ICT: supporting Europe’s small enterprises
7. A single information market: enabling cohesion and growth
8. Revolutionising eGovernment: rethinking delivery of public services
9. Online trust: a safe and secure digital world
10. Clear leadership: rethinking the EU’s policy making process
Each key area is described further and detailed goals are specified in order to reach “the green knowledge society”. Having a background in Usability and User-Centred Design, a couple of ideas pop up in my head. My ideas are maybe a reaction to the high level of the policy goals – I find them to be abstract (as policy always is). Would it be possible to contrast a high-level policy with a massive low-level list of actions? What if every European citizen – on the World Usability Day, for example – each did one effort to improve Usability or Sustainability in their own everyday life? How would a policy compare to such action in terms of effect? Small challenges could be as efficient as a grand policy.
Some ideas for small challenges I got when reading the study was:
Doing less – when it comes to ICT we seem to only talk about doing more, being more productive. Would it not also be suitable to talk about using ICT instead of some old/previous/outdated procedure? The advances technology makes need also to buy us something qualitatively different, not just more computer time. Using ICT to actually do less could buy us humans time and resources that could make a real change in our lives in terms of quality.
Parallel vs. Sequential – we use ICT to be more and more available/present, both professionally and for pleasure, sometimes both at once. Modern smart mobile phones allow us to work anywhere, or play anywhere. In reality, as a result we actually are Elsewhere more of the time [4]. A TV set in the kitchen, email while sitting on the commuter train and the continuous use of an MP3 player are parallel tasks we now cannot do without. However, there is a limit on how much we can do in parallel. From many areas, e.g. music, arts, education and research, we know some things require focus over time in order to reach a certain depth. Again, it could be a question of quality, to find what parts of our lives we want to keep sequential.
I suggest going deep and using ICT for doing less on the World Usability Day the 12th of November [5]. This could give another perspective on Usability and Sustainability, at least for a day.
Erik Borälv
References
1. i2010 – A European Information Society for growth and employment.
2. Visby Agenda: creating impact for an eUnion 2015.
3. A Green Knowledge Society – An ICT policy agenda to 2015 for Europe’s future knowledge society.