Talking with Computers & Humans • 2022 • Conference Guide • Handmade Seattle

0:00Opening Titles

0:08Communication in software businesses

1:16Overview

1:47Overview: Menu

2:17Models

2:48The Shannon–Weaver model of communication

3:12Sending Morse code across a wire

3:38Software server–client communication, WhiteBox's plugins

3:53Communication encoding stack: JSON

4:12Communication encoding stack, augmented with metadata and context assumptions

4:41Communication encoding stack: Custom Binary Format

5:02Blurring the line between custom and culturally common formats¹

5:19WhiteBox's choice of JSON, reiterating the communication process

6:10Shannon's mathematical model

6:24Shannon's mathematical model: Latency

6:41Shannon's mathematical model: Bandwidth and Throughput

7:03Non-digital communication: Carrier pigeon

7:27Encoding for user interfaces

8:17Understanding platforms à la "Handmade" ethos

8:30Cognitive Effectiveness, from 'The Physics of Notations'²

8:50Visual Variables, from Semiology of Graphics³

9:19Linearly combining visual variables

9:27Potential splitting of channels, similar to converting arrays-of-structs to structs-of-arrays

9:51What's the point in separating them?

10:05"Levels" of Data

10:14"Levels" of Data: Nominal

10:27"Levels" of Data: Ordinal

10:34"Levels" of Data: Quantitative

10:42Visual Variables: Size and position = Quantitative

10:59Visual Variables: Lightness and texture grain = Ordinal

11:02Visual Variables: Colour and shape = Nominal

11:07Differentiating variables: What's Possible? What's Effective?

11:43Finding "ligula" using shape

12:01Finding "ligula" using colour

12:06Combining colour with other visual variables

12:45Principles for improving cognitive effectiveness⁴

12:55Cognitive effectiveness principles: Perceptual Discriminability

13:17Coding the same concept through multiple channels: Red heart

13:46Conjunction vs disjunction of variables

14:04Cognitive effectiveness principles: Visual Expressiveness

14:14Encoding information in any combination of lightness (ordinal), size (quantitative) and colour (nominal)

15:07Minimalism

15:25Cognitive effectiveness principles: Semiotic Clarity

15:39Semiotic Clarity Deviation: 1) Redundancy

16:24Semiotic Clarity Deviation: 2) Overload

16:44Semiotic Overload Example: WhiteBox's "Line"

17:30Semiotic Clarity Deviation: 3) Excess⁵

17:49Semiotic Clarity Deviation: 4) Deficit

18:14Expert vs Novice

18:32Trade-offs⁶

18:47Full disclosure: Missed out half visual variables, most principles, all senses besides sight, and human–computer input entirely

19:02Interaction: "A cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak" — Chris Crawford⁷

19:24Interaction Examples: 1) Conversation

20:02Interaction Examples: 2) Speaker-dominated in-person presentation

20:19Interaction Examples: 3) Pre-recorded presentation

20:29Conversational Iteration Strategy

21:10Conversational Iteration Strategy: Communication cost

21:39Adding more participants to our model

21:50Surfacing or hiding elements of semiotic clarity

22:10Considering intermediary participant nodes as part of the channel, possibly introducing hierarchy

22:27Conway's Law⁸

22:59Splitting, joining and grouping channels, symbolising their size (quantitative)

23:12Hit-rate, indicated by texture (ordinal)

23:25Marketing

23:41Market Segmentation: 1) Attention (Do they know you exist?)

23:44Market Segmentation: 2) Interest (Are you offering the kind of thing they might want, and they know that?)

23:50Market Segmentation: 3) Desire (Do they feel that you're going to solve a problem for them?)

23:55Market Segmentation: 4) Action (Do they put up the money to purchase your offering?)

24:04Chris Zukowski's recommendations: Social media for attention, then increasingly relying on email⁹

24:25Marketing: Message consistency across channels

24:34Marketing: Feedback channels

24:45Jay Conrad Levinson's suggestion: Aim for higher frequency to smaller audience

25:12Targets are not abstract

25:31"There's no such thing as platform independent" — Mike Acton¹⁰

25:44"A diverse audience is not the same as a generic audience" — Larry McEnerney

26:08O.O.D.A. Loops

26:48O.O.D.A. Loops: Observe and Act map to Listen (decode) and Speak (encode)

26:56O.O.D.A. Loops: Orient and Decide split from Thinking

27:15TRIZ: Theory of Invented Problem-solving

27:31O.O.D.A. Loops: Shaping mental models

28:26Model Mismatch

28:43Model Mismatch: Interlocutor trustworthiness

29:22Mitigating Model Mismatch: Shared State

30:377 Stages of Interaction, from The Design of Everyday Things¹¹

31:017 Stages of Interaction: Understanding

31:567 Stages of Interaction: Benefits of increased complexity

32:087 Stages of Interaction Example: Turning a gizmo on to operate unsupervised

32:58Interpretation Error: Three Mile Island

33:42UX / UI Testing

34:14UX / UI Testing Process¹²

35:19Misunderstood UIs

35:33Loop Information Flow

35:44Unrolling our loop using the position (quantitative) variable

36:23Conversation length from an API perspective

37:02Async?

37:30When are messages sent?

37:45Levels of Automation, related to the "level of interaction balance" from Chris Crawford¹³

38:27Supervision

38:43Choosing Your Level

39:02Team Supervision

39:39Assuming Responsibility

40:02Summary

40:27Summary: Getting communication wrong

41:21Thank you to Abner and his team

41:32Closing Titles¹⁴^,15

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