Perception of information : enriching location specific information through the use of calm computing

Thesis (MTech (Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011.Many studies have been conducted on the interaction between environments and relevant information in the field of interaction design. Most of these studies are focused on increasing the awareness of technology, information and the interaction between them. This awareness could negatively lead to an increase in information overload where each bit of information is competing to be the centre of a person's attention. This information overload gets compounded even more when a person is in a public place because of the amount of available commercial information like billboards, digital displays and printed media which are constantly pushing information into the space. Cognitive studies have shown that human beings have a limit to the amount of information they can consciously focus on and process. When a person reaches information saturation, the quality of their decision-making ability deteriorates drastically (Bray, 2008). Information overload can lead to a situation called decision paralysis. The research proposed an investigation into the possibility of decreasing information overload through the use of calm computing. Relevant information could be pushed to the periphery where it could be accessed or attended to when it was needed. It was argued that when the intake of peripheral information could become an unconscious activity, mainly through the use of ubiquitous computing, more attention could be given to other important activities like increasing social interaction in public spaces