My Robot Gets Me: How Social Design Can Make New Products More Human, reviewed

We look at this book which attempts to put its finger on the pulse in terms of what is coming down the line. Written by Carla Diana, available from Harvard Business Review Press, and also here.

My Robot Gets Me : How Social Design Can Make New Products More Human, reviewed

This is a practical and hands on guide for designers, which begins from the starting point of how the roomba floor cleaning robot managed to achieve an emotional connection with many of its owners. Of course we’re not saying that the roomba has achieved general artificial intelligence, rather, simply that we humans are very quick to form emotional bonds with inanimate objects. It is, as always, all about us, but even so, if you can understand this, and take the idea onboard, then you are already beginning to better comprehend what Diana is aiming to convey in the early chapters.

From here onwards it is a play by play deconstruction of what humanity has learned so far in terms of making machines more believably human like. The book offers some thought provoking insights and observations, while also walking us down a path closer to the uncanny alley. What happens when robots are too human like? If they have, or more closer to consciousness, will they have rights too, and will there be ethical arrangements to ensure they are treated fairly. For now we are not there yet, and this book is about a much nearer potential reality which Diana offers a careful and well described illustration of what we can expect before we reach any Skynet scenarios.

See more about the book here ->

Your relationships with your “smart” products are about to get a lot more personal.

Think how commonplace it is now for people to ask Siri for the weather forecast, deploy Roomba to clean their homes, or summon Alexa to turn on the lights. The “smart home” market will reach well over $100 billion in the next five years on the promise of products that are truly integrated with our cooking, cleaning, entertainment, security, and hygiene habits.

But the reality is, these first-generation “smart” products aren’t very smart—yet. We’re clearly seeing only the tip of the iceberg in terms of capability and how such products can enhance our lives. How do we take it to the next level?

In a word, design—and more specifically, social design. In this fascinating and instructive book, leading product design expert Carla Diana describes how new technology is allowing designers to humanize consumer products in delightfully subtle ways. Showcasing vivid examples of social design principles such as “product presence,” “object expression,” and “interaction intelligence,” we see how inventive uses of light, sound, and movement can evoke human responses to even the most mundane products.

Diana offers clear guidelines and takeaways for conceptualizing, building, and optimizing products using such methods as bodystorming, scenario storyboarding, video prototyping, behavior charting, and more.

My Robot Gets Me provides keen insights and practical advice to anyone interested or involved in the burgeoning smart marketplace, from product designers and developers to managers and venture capitalists.

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