A good example of thinking along these lines is IDEO's book, "Thoughtless Acts?: Observations on Intuitive Design", available from Amazon (although not yet for the Kindle) at <a href=”http://is.gd/CpkB.” target=”_blank”>http://is.gd/CpkB. It's mostly images, but all of everyday objects being used in slightly unexpected but obvious ways.

What's even better in all of this is when you find the right balance, the user doesn't even realize that technology is in play any more — you've been able to remove a layer of abstraction and they more directly get into the experience. Why have extra fussy controls if they make the experience more complex? To use a personal example, if a museum wants to know what people are interested in, don't make them click something on a handheld or do some deliberate action. Instead, notice that they spent a certain amount of time in proximity to something as the point where you notice their attention and then when the visitor leans in to read the label, a very deliberate action, then note their actual interest. Invisible to the user, but their actions tell you an awful lot. (Hm, now that I think about it, I'm sure I've seen a media lab project along these lines, but I can't find it online.)

Heh, and then the fun begins … how to tease out the accidental actions or the minimal actions as unintended observations vs. deliberate actions. At what point did your bathroom soap dispenser realize that you were being deliberate vs accidentally brushing against it (if it did at all). Time? Variability of motion (waving)? etc. More often that not, it's the *subtle* things you do in the experience that make the biggest difference, not the deliberate things.

Yeah. I *love* this stuff.

I'm not OCD… just an engineer. There are inefficiencies everywhere. Well, maybe I'm OCD because I think all that out… damn.