ACM Interactions

Escape the room: A girl on a drip, a pizza slice, and a smartphone set to stun

Posted: Fri, December 23, 2016 - 9:56:39

One late autumn afternoon I found myself in an Ohio hospital room sitting with a teenage girl I'll call Orleans Jackson. She was spending her 15th birthday “getting poked full of holes,” as she put it.Rail-thin with almond eyes, Orleans had her hair in springy dreadlocks. She apologized for “being in total moonface mode,” describing the signature look of those…

Same as it ever was: Constitutional design and the Orange One

Posted: Tue, October 11, 2016 - 4:07:05

In politics, as in music, one person’s stairway to heaven is another’s highway to hell. Proof is in the polls: Americans across the political spectrum believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. And here’s the thing: Rather than dispute one another over the facts, we acknowledge only the facts that suit our present viewpoint and values. Then there’s…

The map is the territory: A review of The Stack

Posted: Wed, August 03, 2016 - 4:18:39

From that phantom vibration to that reflex to grab your own rear, you are responding to the call of The Stack… From the virtual caliphate of ISIS to the first Sino-Google War of 2009 to the perpetually pending Marketplace Fairness Act, The Stack gives birth to new sovereignties even as it strangles others in their sleep. From YouTube’s content guidelines…

Big, hairy, and wicked

Posted: Fri, September 05, 2014 - 1:00:56

Interaction designers sure can take things personally. When our behavior is driven by ego, this habit can be annoying. All that huffing and puffing during design crits! But when it springs from empathy for those our designs are meant to serve, then this signal attitude can yield dividends for all. Nowhere are these sensitivities more critical to success—or more knotty—than…