[HN Gopher] Calm tech certification "rewards" less distracting tech
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Calm tech certification "rewards" less distracting tech
Author : headalgorithm
Score : 149 points
Date : 2025-01-21 15:12 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| Minor49er wrote:
| I was trying to read the article about less-distracting tech, but
| I was distracted by a "create an account" popup that covered the
| screen while doing so
| cesarvarela wrote:
| And the cookies banner and the related stories column...
| abeppu wrote:
| > requires an instruction booklet with a list of replacements and
| compatible parts
|
| I appreciate this but it doesn't seem like it belongs in a
| certification about calmness per se. Even annoying tech should be
| clear about the extent to which parts are replaceable.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| This is the danger with certifications: Making the
| certification too broad, causes very few things to be
| certified. Very few things being certified, means nobody knows
| why the certification matters.
|
| In my mind, repairability, "calmness," accessibility - it's all
| separate.
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| Think of calm as the opposite of surprised. As in, wow I'm
| surprised this computer has a proprietary soldered on SSD I
| can't replace! I am no longer calm!
| remoquete wrote:
| Amber Case's book on Calm Technology and design was a great read.
| Perhaps as a consequence of having studied Cognitive Science, I
| find this one to be the best book I've read on feature design --
| and not just for software.
|
| It's full of easily digestible insights on attention and context,
| with excellent examples and clear explanations. It's almost
| philosophical in its apparent simplicity.
| eikenberry wrote:
| What were some of these insights?
| remoquete wrote:
| The most important is that tech must stay at the periphery of
| the user's attention. Of course one cannot apply this to
| Candy Crush...
| jf wrote:
| I wasn't able to find a full list of all Calm Tech certified
| devices, but it looks like the union of these two URLs lists most
| of what they have certified:
|
| https://www.calmtech.institute/calm-tech-certification
|
| https://www.calmtech.institute/blog/tags/calm-tech-certified
| jbm wrote:
| I own that timer, or an Aliexpress knockoff there-of. It is
| great and helps my kids with their homework.
|
| The daylight computer looked interesting too; but its website
| undermines the message it seems to give. I wanted a price and
| to order and could do neither, but there were long paragraphs
| about how revolutionary it was, with left to right and up-to-
| down transitions.
| agumonkey wrote:
| I can't stop thinking that we're circling back to how "tech" was
| before when it was limited because it fits our needs better.
| Slower, some complexity, less possibilities at every time.
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| Yes I think the smartphone is an instance of "Your scientists
| were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't
| stop to think if they should.", when tech had higher
| constraints there was more thought put into determining what
| was essential.
|
| When I want to put on headphones to do chores around the house
| I pick up my 2006-era iPod. No wireless pairing to screw with,
| no distracting notifications, just a library of music I've
| already listened to a hundred times so I can just think, which
| of these albums am I in the mood for, and choose. The interface
| is simple to navigate because there's just not much _to_
| navigate, and IMO that goes a long way to have a predictable
| experience that never introduces frustration.
| agumonkey wrote:
| The irony is that, the iphone era was somehow everything I
| wanted to see. But indeed this unified (incredible) device,
| ends up being a sink in itself that sucks so much of your
| thoughts to provide very few on average (there's some fun
| stuff given by having a pocket computer to be fair).
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| For me the tipping point was when I could no longer FTP
| files to my android phone. Not much of a computer IMO !
| mhh__ wrote:
| In the west I guess there's some truth to that but I think
| phones have been emancipatory in the poorer parts of the
| world.
| constantcrying wrote:
| But the universality of phones also made them great _tools_.
| Maps, calls, messages all can be enormously beneficial.
|
| The problem comes when they are both a tool and an
| entertainment device, as they are inseparably linked
| together.
| agumonkey wrote:
| I think the universality hides the fact that these are not
| really made to stay in the flow of life but to be cute and
| shiny in themselves, capturing your attention instead of
| being the shortest path on providing what you need to keep
| going. Then there's the instability of platform (plethora
| of messaging apps..), the usual ad infestation (google maps
| now shows a lot of local shop whether you asked for it or
| not) etc etc. Old devices had to be tailored and became a
| side element in your life.
| localghost3000 wrote:
| > Companies designing new products were unclear on what was
| right, or wrong, and uncertain about how they might put calm
| technology ideals into practice.
|
| Nope. That's not at all what the problem is. The problem is that
| when you implement features that respect the users attention an
| engagement metric dips slightly. And a shot caller notices. They
| roll the feature back. Because at the end of the day your calm
| means fuck all to the pursuit of endless growth.
| umutisik wrote:
| Tablets and phones could be calm tech too if they adjusted their
| brightness and white-point correctly based on ambient lighting.
| yapyap wrote:
| I doubt those are the uncalming aspects of tablets and phones,
| sure they're what keep you up at night on a physical level but
| not mentally.
| hammock wrote:
| + Greyscale + some kind of refresh rate limiter to 1-2Hz
| instead of 60-120hz :)
| 9021007 wrote:
| Sounds like you're describing an e-ink phone, which is
| actually a real product!
| hammock wrote:
| Yes. Or a smartphone with these settings (doesn't require
| you to spend $$)
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| I thought an interesting move for the next Light Phone is to
| dedicate an entire knob to screen brightness [0], although they
| indicate it will be user programmable too.
|
| https://www.thelightphone.com/blog/light-iii-design-manifest...
| sdflhasjd wrote:
| My previous phone had a scheduled "night time mood" which put
| the display into greyscale. Without this there's an intensity
| to the screen that reducing the brightness doesn't fix.
| gagik_co wrote:
| I mean right now just seems to be one of those business that one
| pays to put a logo of a nice green checkmark or a tree to make
| your product seem more legit and ethical
|
| Sure it's nice to push bunch of nice UI patterns but I imagine
| most of the "certified" products weren't going to be attention
| hogs anyways. A positive outcome from something like this would
| be if governments started requiring these kind of certifications
| like they do for accessibility.
| motohagiography wrote:
| working on some product ideas now, finding that any code or set
| of interactions you can abstract up into an analog control loop
| is both calm and powerful.
|
| if you have a system where you can dynamically dial resources up
| and down to find an optimal output, that's a high value system. I
| think understanding this balance is how aesthetic properties
| translate into value.
| endofreach wrote:
| Need to try it here, dorry for OT: Does anyone know investors in
| europe looking to fund something a little moonshotty? What i've
| been working on is fundamentally "calm" at it's core, yet more
| advanced tech.
|
| Happy for any input (don't think VC is the route to go).
| pedalpete wrote:
| We're building a neuromodulation sleep headband, and we've always
| had the aim of getting to the point where the user puts it on, it
| does it's thing (slow-wave enhancement) the person takes it off
| in the morning and goes about their day.
|
| I don't even want to put IO into the device at all. Not only
| because it increases cost and size, but because I don't what the
| user having to interact. We have to find better ways to fit the
| device in your life, so you don't even think about it.
| polishdude20 wrote:
| Woah can you tell us more about this? Seems like really cool
| tech
| 0_____0 wrote:
| I love tech like this. You put it on and it just does its
| thing. My HR monitor is like that, although if the receiving
| device doesn't immediately pair, it can be frustrating figuring
| out what's gone wrong.
| bodge5000 wrote:
| I was working on a similar IO problem with wearables a while
| ago (though by the sounds of things, far less seriously than
| you are), and I had the idea that maybe that band/strap could
| function as an on-off switch, so when you undo the band (which
| you do when taking it off), it turns the device off, and vice
| versa. Could be something you could try too
| adhoc_slime wrote:
| Do you get many people thinking this product is snakeoil?
| everyone wrote:
| I mean that mui Board thing is pretty cool and novel, that would
| definitely distract me for a while.
| constantcrying wrote:
| Very interesting initiative. I think examining products on that
| level is very important.
|
| What I think is also important though are tools which can embrace
| this and work with existing technology. The modern smartphone is
| simultaneously a great tool and an enormous distraction. There
| exist no device which offers the tools I genuinely need without
| all of the distractions.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| Agreed, had a bunch of talks about this issue with the wife.
|
| On one hand, we're both distractible people, and it'd probably
| be better if we could leave our phones behind on certain family
| outings and trips.
|
| But on the other hand, there's definitely times where you
| really need your phone on said outings: for directions, for
| business info, to call people, to book things, etc. It's just
| hard to get the necessities without bringing along everything
| else.
| dang wrote:
| Related. Others?
|
| _Calm Technology_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29115653 - Nov 2021 (68
| comments)
|
| _Calm Technology_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21799736 - Dec 2019 (155
| comments)
|
| _Principles of Calm Technology_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12389344 - Aug 2016 (66
| comments)
|
| _Calm Technology_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9107526
| - Feb 2015 (1 comment)
|
| _Calm Tech, Then and Now_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8475764 - Oct 2014 (1
| comment)
|
| _Designing Calm Technology (1995)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7976258 - July 2014 (2
| comments)
| brianmaurer wrote:
| Coincidentally there's an app on the front page that is an open-
| source and free for the Unpluq product mentioned in the Calm
| certification: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42782295
| choilive wrote:
| You know whats calm and not distracting? A notebook and pen. You
| can buy a LOT of decent notebooks for the price of one of the
| reMarkables mentioned in the article. (~30 or so?), and it will
| last a lot longer as well. Im starting to sound like a luddite.
| kibwen wrote:
| _> Im starting to sound like a luddite._
|
| Obligatory mention that the Luddites weren't against technology
| in general, they were against technology that was causing them
| to lose their livelihoods (while the country was already in the
| midst of an employment crisis and economic downturn due to a
| trade war (and real war) with Napoleon's Europe).
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