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Calm Technology is a process for designing technology that works with human attention, instead of against it.

Principles of Calm Technology

Developed by Amber Case

I. Technology should require the smallest possible amount of attention

  1. Technology can communicate, but doesn’t need to speak.

  2. Create ambient awareness through different senses.

  3. Communicate information without taking the user out of their environment or task.

II. Technology should inform and create calm

  1. A person's primary task should not be computing, but being human.

  2. Give people what they need to solve their problem, and nothing more.

III. Technology should make use of the periphery

  1. A calm technology will move easily from the periphery of our attention, to the center, and back.

  2. The periphery is informing without overburdening.

IV. Technology should amplify the best of technology and the best of humanity

  1. Design for people first.

  2. Machines shouldn't act like humans.

  3. Humans shouldn't act like machines.

  4. Amplify the best part of each.

V. Technology can communicate, but doesn’t need to speak

  1. Does your product need to rely on voice, or can it use a different communication method?

  2. Consider how your technology communicates status.

VI. Technology should work even when it fails

  1. Think about what happens if your technology fails.

  2. Does it default to a usable state or does it break down complet

VII. The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem

  1. What is the minimum amount of technology needed to solve the problem?

  2. Slim the feature set down so that the product does what it needs to do and no more.

VIII. Technology should respect social norms

  1. Technology takes time to introduce to humanity.

  2. What social norms exist that your technology might violate or cause stress on?

  3. Slowly introduce features so that people have time to get accustomed to the product.

Book

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Calm Technology: Principles and Patterns for Non-Intrusive Design

2015, O'Reilly Books

Author Amber Case expands on ideas first introduced by researchers at Xerox PARC in 1995 with a series of principles, patterns and examples of how they apply to our current technology landscape, especially the Internet of Things.
 
This book is ideal for UX and product designers, managers, creative directors, developers, and anyone that cares about making products that exist alongside humans in a state of harmony.

History

Designer and researcher Amber Case learned about a set of small papers about Calm Tech while writing her thesis on smartphones in 2007. This discovery led her to question why these ideas were not more widely known. Starting in 2010, she expanded on the papers by creating the Principles of Calm Technology, and in 2015, an influentual book called Calm Technology: Principles and Patterns for Non-Intrusive Design.

 

Now, the concept of Calm Technology and Case's principles for Calm Product Design have been widely adopted by companies all over the world, including Microsoft, Samsung, Google, Virgin Global and AirBNB. Calm Technology also inspired Kyoto-based startup Mui Lab. Case is a frequent traveler and speaker on the topic of Calm Tech, leading workshops and deep consulting work at many companies and institutions.

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