Anticipatory Design and how it might shape us rather than we shape it
This story is a contribution to Joël van Bodegraven’s movement to create an Anticipatory Design Manifesto.
Establishing a routine
I am a regular visitor of a local coffee shop called Z am Park. But unlike for most other customers, my morning order consists of a bottle of Coke Zero rather than some fancy beans brew.
As it happens, staff at this place changes once in a while. So it was at one point when I got served by a new waitress that had started working there — I just call her Shelly for now.
Shelly would come over, greet me in a friendly tone, take my order and serve me. This pattern began to become repetitive. Day after day I would go there, she would come over, take my order and serve me.
A pretty normal process. It went on for a while until she had begun to anticipate my preference for a morning coke. Rather than even asking, she would suggest that I’d take a coke! This triggered a smile on both sides faces, a quick small talk and some lightweight jokes. A pleasant customer experience you could say! Everything was OK!
This pattern went on for a while until to a point when I would sit down and get my preferred beverage without even asking! Wow! No conversation was required anymore — an anticipatory no user interface experience you could say! Non-verbal telepathic interaction! A 100% human “technology” at its best!
Getting stuck in the Experience Bubble
At one point I had come to the coffee shop again, sat down and got my coke as it had been happing before.
But all over sudden, I felt some kind of unease.
Something felt wrong…
I felt somehow pressured and robbed of my choice…
Although Shelly had correctly anticipated my likely behaviour, I would have preferred to make up my mind, flip through the menu, get inspired and go for something new and different that day.
I got stuck in the “Experience Bubble” as Joël van Bodegraven refers to this phenomenon. It describes loop of returning events, actions and activities you get stuck in. In technology, algorithms cause these returning events. In my real world example, it was Shelly.
I felt reluctant and bad to refuse the drink. After all, it’s what I had been doing over and over again. Shelly had only shown her customer centered and best intention, which should have been in my best interest. She had anticipated my typical behaviour, took the chore of making a choice from me and provided me with a great experience. This had been working well until this point…
But that day it kind of left me unfulfilled…
What happened in this real world example happens in a digital sphere. More and more, we design and train our intelligent tools, assistances and services to act upon our interest, routine and preferred behaviour. They learn and take the burden of the tedious decision-making process from us before we even think about it.
Anticipatory Design at work and beyond
Joël van Bodegraven puts it this way: “Anticipatory Design is a design pattern that moves around learning (Internet of Things), predicting (Machine Learning) and anticipation (UX Design)”.
He lists Nest, Netflix and Amazon’s Echo as good examples of how products that learn adjust and anticipates on given data of the user. Check out his work on the topic:
The Flip Side of Anticipation
Once such tools have gotten to know and act upon our behaviour, they start to shape it. In fact, they have already done so in many ways I guess.
Think of how social media sites only present us with news and opinions that “matter to us” but hide what would contradict with our point of view or other areas of interest.
Or pay attention to how your smart voice assistance responds to your questions and requests with one answer or action instead of giving you a choice.
With anticipatory design fueled by advances in AI on the rise… Do we train our smart companions to behave the way we want, to a point where they flip the switch and make us behave the way they want?
I believe we need to learn not to unlearn how to stay curious, how to ask questions and how to make our own decisions.
