I’d like to respond directly to Principle 2.6: “Tech Should Create Calm.” I really loved that this notion was pulled out and featured as a core principle of design, because it often has seemed that tech creates chaos! Mindless scrolling on social media, minutes lost checking different notifications across apps, the sounds of messages coming in urging us to respond within moments have often interrupted my moments of calm, rather than facilitated them.
When I read this principle, a few things came to mind. The first is that a piece of technology can be designed whose sole purpose is to cultivate calm - e.g. a meditation app, an infrared light therapy lamp or a white noise generator for peaceful sleep at night. Beyond this more literal interpretation of Principle 2.6 however, is simply that in seeking to successfully solve a functional problem, in an aesthetically pleasing way, a sense of calm can be instilled in the user. A sense of joy, relief, satisfaction and perhaps even stillness arrives to the user after their experience interacting with the design because it has, through its mere existence, created a byproduct of calmness after use. This is excellent! I have never thought about design through the lens of achieving calmness as an intended effect, but the more I apply this lens to technology I enjoy interacting with, the more I find Principle 2.6 to hold true. Simple examples of tech I have utilized that have rendered me feeling calm include: the sound my JBL speaker makes (not to mention its satisfying rubber touch/feel) when it connects to the bluetooth of my iPhone, the blackout curtains in my old loft that would silently move up and down at sunrise and sunset because they ran on wifi or the large order button on the Blue Bottle Coffee app even though I should feel stressed that I am spending $8 on a matcha!
The best example of feeling calmness after using technology, however, is in the case of learning. Similarly to the examples of Ocarina in Chapter 2, when technology is used for learning or skill-building, it creates inclusion and accessibility, and creates the potential to bring a skill set to a group that may otherwise not have tried the skill to begin with. Ocarina is an instrument, but it is also an application. When something is labeled *only* an “instrument”, a non-musical person might immediately avoid approaching Ocarina, because they have already made the decision in their mind that they are not “musical.” When Ocarina is presented as an application, however, or a “toy”, an “experiment”, a “tool”...anything other than an “instrument,” it immediately becomes accessible to a larger group of people. When that “non-musical” person finds themselves making enjoyable sounds and melodies simply by interacting with a user-friendly interface and design, the resulting feeling is enjoyment, surprise, delight, and ultimately a calmness that they were successful and didn’t experience the embarrassment they perceived they might. Sonically, as the solider in Chapter 2 shared, it also had a lullabye effect!
Currently at Stanford, I am learning beginner Hindi. Earlier today, we had a homework assignment to use a game site called Quizlet to play a few games to practice declining Hindi nouns in the masculine and feminine form. As “asteroids” shaped like Hindi words fell from the sky of my laptop, I found myself eager to save the planet (i.e. the bottom of my laptop screen) by recalling the words in English. The more progress I would gain each round, the more delight, confidence, and ultimately calmness I felt around my own Hindi ability. The nervousness that comes around an unfamiliar language, ultimately shifted to a calm confidence around words that started to become familiar. In this way, technology allowed me to be an “explorer” rather than a “destroyer” of a skill set such as speaking Hindi, by lowering my inhibition around my own abilities. In this way, technology used a potentially distracting media, such as a video game, to bring me back to a useful application of it, by gamifying the learning of a language. Indeed, Tech Should Create Calm.
My favorite part about watching the video was the attention on feminine attributes such as the goddesses, deities and sublime depictions of nature in the video game. Beyond the action itself, Wang's commentary on how he simply wanted to keep walking in the game because it imbued a sense of calmness, only further illustrates Principle 2.6. As an infrequent video game user, watching this video actually shifted my perspective on the stereotype that video games are hectic and violent. Instead, I was able to see more of an ambient use case - one where I could be transported to instant calm and serenity without moving a muscle, and also a use case of creating wonder and delight in the user through this feeling of blissful travel. The golden straw fields, the stunning trees, the peaceful sky all added to the notion that tech has vast potential for creating a sense of calmness in the user, even when the perceived effect can be quite the opposite.