Interesting article on increasing benevolent deception in computer/human interactions: Many crosswalk and elevator door-close buttons don’t actually work as advertised. The only purpose of these so-called placebo buttons is to give the impatient person a false sense of agency. Similarly, the progress bars presented on computer screens during downloads, uploads, and software installations maintain virtually no connection to the actual amount of time or work left before the action is completed. ... ”[D]igital signs that over-estimate wait times for lines at amusement parks, arguably fall into this category by giving people the illusion of control, or by soothing anxious nerves. Coinstar kiosks, the coin-counting machines stationed in Walmart and other stores, are rumored to take longer than necessary to tally change because designers learned that customers find a too-quick tally disconcerting. Another example: robotic systems designed to help people overcome their own perceived limits. Researchers have experimented with rehabilitation robots that under-report the force a patient exerts, to help her move past a sense of learned weakness and recover from injury faster. psmag/navigation/nature-and-technology/technology-deception-elevator-crosswalk-programming-robots-lie-89669/
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 04:49:38 +0000
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