1. The Foundations of
Spatial Computing
Sjors Timmer
@sjors

2. Now you can create documents
with words and pictures
Xerox Star 8010
1981

3. This is not a watered down version
of the internet
Or a mobile version of the internet
It’s just the Internet…
On your phone
iPhone
2007

4. It also comes with all the YouTube
features you already love
YouTube VR
2016

5. The ‘content’ of any medium is always another
medium.
Marshall McLuhan
The medium is the message

6. The ‘content’ of any new medium is the previous
best selling medium
Free after Marshall McLuhan

7. But it doesn’t have to be that way

8. Paul Sellers
How to Make a Mortise and Tenon Joint

10. What if we could work with information like a carpenter works
with wood?

11. The intelligent use of space
Understanding through interaction
1.
2.

12. 1. The intelligent use of space

13. The intelligent use of space
How we manage the spatial arrangement of items around us,
is not an afterthought; it is an integral part of the way we think,
plan and behave.
- David Kirsh

14. Extend memory

15. Sense making

16. Novel ways of seeing

18. Experts constantly re-arrange
items to make it easy to track the
state of the task, or to notice the
properties signaling what to do
next.
- David Kirsh

19. Simplify choice
“Once a context of action has
been triggered, the local
affordances make clear what can
and must be done.” and “prevent
us from considering irrelevant
alternatives.”
David Kirsh

20. Simplify what’s next
“If I can arrange items to display
the sequence they are are to be
used in, then I don’t have to
remember that order.
- David Kirsh

21. Simplify how next
The environment also indicates
how I should do my next action

22. Experts create little assembly lines of tasks, switching between
short bursts of high cognitive preparation tasks and longer
lower cognitive execution tasks.

23. 2. Understanding through
interaction

24. We should invent knowledge work that incorporates the body
- Bret Victor
The humane representation of thought (2014)

25. Embodied Interaction is the creation, manipulation, and
sharing of meaning through engaged interaction with
artefacts.
- Paul Dourish

26. 1. Observable and reportable
Interaction with the system should reveal the
purposes for which it was designed and how it is
intended to be used

27. 2. Representations should relate to the world
The relation between what can be seen and what
is represented should make sense within the
user’s world experience

28. 3. Physical representation
Being physical humans in a physical world has
endowed us with a rich set of skills. We should
build upon those

29. 4. Direct manipulation
• Interaction through physical movements
• Allow for rapid and reversible actions that
provide immediate visible feedback

30. 5. From space to place
Turn space into a place by transforming it from
‘just’ physical to a social environment

31. 5. From space to place
Turn space into a place moving it from ‘just’
physical to a social environment
• How you move your body changes how you
experience the computing system

32. 5. From space to place
Turn space into a place moving it from ‘just’
physical to a social environment
• How you move your body changes how you
experience the computing system
• The computational system can be adapted
through changes in your physical environment

33. 6. Design for collaboration
When the system is centred around manipulating
artefacts, than all users can see the results of an
action because they all see the same artefact

34. 7. Design for model making
We should design for the dynamic spatial
representation of thought
- Bret Victor
The humane representation of thought (2014)
Illustration by David Hellman

35. Using our body to interact with the world around us frees up
underused capabilities for understanding complex information

36. Recap
- We use space to think
- We programme our environment through artefacts
- Using our body to interact with the world around us
opens up underused capabilities to understand
complex information
- Creating and interacting with dynamic spatial
models is the most powerful way to understand
complex information

37. Deep Interaction at UX Brighton -
Youtube
– Karl Fast
The Humane Representation of
Thought - Vimeo
– Bret Victor
More to watch

38. Thank you!
Sjors Timmer
@sjors