Ruminations on our relationship with technology
“…technology education, something quite different from instruction in using computers to process information …”
– Neil Postman, The End of Education, p 43.
Professional topics look at something we often take for granted. We couldn’t perform our jobs without technology. Since technologies impact how we work and interact, workplaces can benefit not just from technology training (knowing how to use technology). They also can benefit from technology education (understanding how media and machines influence the way we work and communicate).
Given all the ways technologies influence our lives, many professionals have asked: What technology works best for what purpose? In other words (as educator Neil Postman asked), for what problem is the technology a solution? Professions that can help shed light on this question include technical communication, user experience, and business technology. To explore ideas in these professional topics, select any of articles below.
Another way to think about UX design and content Another article of mine was published in Vanguard UX, which houses some of the latest thinking on user experience. For anyone not familiar with this profession, I thought I’d take the opportunity to briefly define what we mean by the term “user experience” (abbreviated UX), including … Read more
What does it mean to say blockchains are trustless? The recent rise of cryptocurrency funds just might add to the fantasy of creating a new financial system based entirely on cryptocurrency. So, I thought it would be a good time to revisit some questions about the underlying technology that makes these so-called financial products possible: … Read more
Knowledge, communication, and technology in collectivist and individualist cultures Communicating tacit and explicit knowledge through technology Previously, I’ve written about the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as its application to information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as email or video calls. To briefly recap: Explicit knowledge refers to information that’s easy to … Read more
How MS Word illustrates technology’s effect on writing Over the past few decades, Microsoft Word became one of the most prominent—if not the most prominent—word processors in the world. Recently, the BBC ran an insightful story about how this dominant word-processing software has affected the way we write. It’s a telling example of technology’s effect … Read more
Do online product reviews have a positivity problem? Summary: When reading product reviews online, we often see lots of extremely positive ratings—and just a few negative ones. What’s happening when there’s almost no nuance in how people rate things? Do these ratings have a positivity problem? When shopping online, we often read product reviews. After … Read more
Preventing human error with better designed technology Recently, I moved to a new apartment with a gas stove in the kitchen. The stove works great, but whenever I use it, I almost always make the same mistake. I turn on the wrong burner. The problem I have is that I can’t tell immediately which control … Read more
When to heed usability-flexibility tradeoffs I recently moved from the Twin Cities to Philadelphia, and luckily, I bought myself a GPS device beforehand. I’m glad I did, because it prevented me from getting lost while traveling and driving around the East Coast. Sure, I could just use a GPS app on a smartphone for the … Read more
The ethics of personalization Recently, I had the opportunity to write for Vanguard UX, the user experience area of The Vanguard Group. The goal of Vanguard UX is to provide thought leadership on various topics in the user experience profession. In this case, I decided to focus on a contentious topic in ethical design: the … Read more
Is cryptocurrency speculation one of the unintended consequences of blockchain technology? Before getting into this topic, let’s state one caveat right away. We’re not financial analysts who specialize in blockchain or cryptocurrency. So who are we to opine on this matter? We’re approaching it not from a financial analysis background but from perspectives that explore … Read more