To, as best we can, detail the functional design of "interfaces" in the ideal home of the future. When we are done, our design should help us better understand what people do, want to do, and might want to do in their homes of the future. We'll aim to end up with a description that is detailed enough so that we can:

• Justify our decisions
• Handle typical questions (e.g. "Where and how do I do X?")
• Recognize the inevitable limits of our design

We only have 8 seminar sessions, so we need to keep moving. We'll be as detailed as we can be given the severe time constraint.  We will keep in mind that we are designing just a single example of one home of the future ... not THE home of the future. 

Philosophy

• We are going to focus on what people do today but not get bogged down in how they do it today
• We will think radically about how life could change and not be constrained by present day conventions.

We will:

• Go, go, go
• Start and end on time
• Reach consensus if possible but vote if needed to keep things moving
• Give people who do the most work the most say
• Use class time solely to generate ideas
• Use timed brainstorming sessions with concise commentary
• Use volunteer time outside of the seminar for idea summary and refinement
• Experiment with brainstorming techniques
• Not make blind leaps of faith about technology
• Make decisions and push forward but always integrate new decisions with previous decisions

After each class I will summarize the ideas we come up with and send out emails.

Physical constraints

Good design requires constraint.  Here are our design constraints:

• We will design an extremely compact residence: 20ft x 30ft
• It should be "stackable," i.e. conducive to high density use
• It should include space for a compact transport vehicle of some sort
• It should be "one story," meaning a person with trouble moving can get around easily
• It can only use foreseeable technology; this is not science fiction
• It's ok to make assumptions about the surrounding community
• We will assume both the home and surrounding community can be built from scratch
• We will pay particular attention to issues of sustainability and increasing quality and quantity of leisure time
• Finally, we have a bottomless source of funds and all new technologies will be cheap enough to include in the standard future home.

Our design should:

• Be possible to construct, with infinite  money, in 5 years
• Not assume any "Artificial" Intelligence that computer scientists can't program
• Use good design to solve technology problems
• Use technology to make better design
• Be detailed enough so we can characterize how people will act in this home

Aesthetics constraints

• Aesthetic concerns are only important if they impact functionality
• Functionality always overrules aesthetic concerns
• Assumption: if people are given new functionality they want, they will adapt to new social and aesthetic conventions

User constraints

Our users are a family of two with a small grandchild child who visits occasionally.   The adults will live in the home until they are very old.

We will not worry about

Last but not least