How can technology better serve humans?

Thomas is an award winning and multidisciplinary designer turned door sign founder. Dory is a reimagined door sign, crafted with care to make everyday interactions a little friendlier. Powered by E Ink and a 15 year battery, it blends timeless design with modern flexibility. From homes to offices and hotels, Dory helps people say hello in their own way, with frames and content that can be updated through a simple app. Thomas Ramberg shares his journey from designer and founder to discovering the value of Calm Technology in everyday life. With Dory as the backdrop, he reflects on how technology can be visible without being intrusive, elegant without being distracting, and helpful without demanding attention. The talk is not a sales pitch, but an honest look at ambitions, challenges and lessons learned so far.

The difference between an annoying technology and one that is helpful is how it engages our attention. Technology shouldn’t require all of our attention, just some of it, and only when necessary. Calm Technology is a framework for designing ubiquitous devices that engage our attention in an appropriate manner. The idea behind Calm Technology is to have smarter people, not things, to engage with attention in the periphery, and to bring tactility back buttons and interfaces, instead of just touchscreens. How can we design technology that becomes a part of a user’s life and not a distraction from it? This speech will cover how to use the Principles of Calm Technology™ to design the next generation of connected devices. We’ll look at notification styles, compressing information into other senses, and designing for the least amount of cognitive overhead. Amber Case is an internationally recognized design advocate and speaker. She is the author of four books, including Calm Technology and A Kids Book About Technology.

Todays’ Norwegian Primary and Secondary Schools rely heavily on iPad. It is not clear that access to such colourful and fun devices create a good learning environment. In this talk, we outline an alternative: A dedicated low-cost and low-colour device specifically designed for coding and robotics skills. The talk will showcase an early prototype, discuss the connection between hardware capabilities and learning outcomes, and take a look at the potential market and competition. The project in still in the early phase, and is an exploratory and joint effort initiated by the Norwegian Steiner/Waldorf Schools, Montessori Schools and SINTEF” Presenters: Vemund Sætre Skuleberg (Waldorf/Steiner), Nina Johansen (Montessori Norway) and Tobias Dahl (SINTEF).