Keynote at 1st International Conference of the ACM Greek SIGCHI Chapter, 26th November 2021 https://alandix.com/academic/talks/DigitalThinking-CHIGreece-2021/ Digital technology is ubiquitous and has transformed many aspects of domestic and business life. At a personal level there is an 'app for everything', in commerce banks are shifting online and even the heat and oil of the factory floor is being transformed by industry 4.0. In some cases, the changes are incremental, simply making existing process more efficient, or allowing online access to previous face-to-face services. However, there are also more radical changes. Some of these are within the methods of digital production from the perpetual beta of Web 2.0 and A-B testing of user interfaces to agile software development. Other changes are enabled by digital technology, such as more flexible industrial processes due to digital fabrication and applications of AI in medicine. There is a distinctly digital eye that allows us to think differently about the world, for example greater levels of personalisation in consumer products, or more dynamic sensor-rich industrial processes. Sometimes these innovations happen by accident, but we can explicitly adopt this viewpoint to prompt more radical design practice. In this talk I will draw out some of the facets and design heuristics of this new mode of digital thinking.

1. Alan Dix
https://alandix.com/ https://digitalthinking.wales/
@alanjohndix @CompFoundry
Digital Thinking
seeing the world with digital eyes

2. deep digitality
radical re-imagining everything
digital thinking
patterns and turns for design

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deep digitality
look to the hills
radical imagining

5. The drainage pattern is thus superimposed and,
apart from the major structural disturbances of
the Neath and Tawe, the river system does not
relate to the underlying geology.
D. Leighton (1998) Mynydd Du and Fforest Fawr: Evolution
of an Upland Landscape in South Wales
Swansea
Cardiff

6. the digital geology
is shifting beneath our feet
…but our social and industrial topography
remains rooted in the physical and
organisational constraints of the 19th century

7. abracadabra
what if?
silicon revolution
before the steel revolution?
digital technology
before the Medicis

8. radical reimaginings
health
education
commerce

9. fashion
http://nattyjanesews.blogspot.com/2012/02/nattyjanes-dress-variation-part-1.html
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sewing_department_in_Hungary.jpg

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digital thinking
digital patterns of mind
even for non-digital designs

12. ways of thinking
computational thinking
–decomposition, etc.
design thinking
–method and process
systems thinking
–big picture
management thinking
–anyone’s guess!

13. also …
Qualitative–Quantitative
reasoning
 qualitative thinking about
quantitative phenomena
 more about numbers and data

14. … just first steps
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marguerite_Gérard_-_The_first_steps.jpg

15. enablers of digital thinking
• cheap computation and sensing
• ubiquitous communication
• growth of digital fabrication
• changing role of money

16. money made the
world go round

17. changing role of money
not just bitcoin!
two roles of money:
value
information

18. diversity density
kitchen
cupboard
high diversity
density

19. diversity density
supermarket
shelf
lower diversity
density

20. traditional markets
producer
factory
warehouse
lorry
supermarket
consumer
diversity
density
information volume

21. internet market
producer
factory
warehouse
lorry
supermarket
consumer
information volume

22. making sense
of digital thinking
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_curious_child,_smelling_flower,_India.jpg

23. facets of digital thinking
Human
– how existing human processes and systems might
radically change or new ones emerge.
• breaking physical constraints of communication, production
and transport
Engineering
– how we design physical systems differently, given the
nature of digital technology
• trading engineering precision for computational power
finding better problems
solving problems better

24. human aspects
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_assembly_line_-_1913.jpg

25. Human – finding better problems
• Individual vs. uniform mass production
• Distributed vs. centralised
• Open monitored processes
• Deconstructing knowledge, behaviour and
experience
• Physical–digital ecologies

26. Human – finding better problems
• Individual vs. uniform mass production
– e.g. fashion case studies, Welsh wind distillery
– enabled by communication, digital fabrication
• Distributed vs. centralised
• Open monitored processes
• Deconstructing knowledge, behaviour and
experience
• Physical–digital ecologies

28. Human – finding better problems
• Individual vs. uniform mass production
• Distributed vs. centralised
– e.g. washing machine case study
– enabled by communication, digital fabrication,
role of money
• Open monitored processes
• Deconstructing knowledge, behaviour and
experience
• Physical–digital ecologies

29. the printed washing machine
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washing_Machine_Beko.jpg
photos: Jacqui Bennett

30. Human – finding better problems
• Individual vs. uniform mass production
• Distributed vs. centralised
• Open monitored processes
– e.g. digital archives, drug testing policy
– enabled by communication, computation
• Deconstructing knowledge, behaviour and
experience
• Physical–digital ecologies

32. Human – finding better problems
• Individual vs. uniform mass production
• Distributed vs. centralised
• Open monitored processes
• Deconstructing knowledge, behaviour and
experience
– e.g. health – just in time knowledge for paramedics
– enabled by communication, computation
• Physical–digital ecologies

33. https://www.walesairambulance.com/welsh-flying-medics

34. Human – finding better problems
• Individual vs. uniform mass production
• Distributed vs. centralised
• Open monitored processes
• Deconstructing knowledge, behaviour and
experience
• Physical–digital ecologies
– e.g. mobile learning, books
– enabled by communication, sensing, fabrication

35. University of Surrey Next Generation Paper
https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/webinar-discussing-future-books

36. engineering aspects
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rocket_(Smiles).jpg

37. Engineering – solving problems better
• Commoditising complexity
• Control vs. measurement
• Accuracy vs. computation
• Best vs. good enough
• Defuse sensing and opportunistic data

38. Engineering – solving problems better
• Commoditising complexity
– e.g. firefly
• Control vs. measurement
• Accuracy vs. computation
• Best vs. good enough
• Defuse sensing and
opportunistic data

39. Engineering – solving problems better
• Commoditising complexity
• Control vs. measurement
– e.g. universal governor,
Euro fighter, Segway,
autonomous cars
• Accuracy vs. computation
• Best vs. good enough
• Defuse sensing and opportunistic data
By Globbet - Own work by uploader, with permission from the
Mill Meece Pumping Station Preservation Trust, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7421535
Two tourists on a Segway (photo Spinnick597, Wikipedia) :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FlorenceSegwayTour.jpg

40. Engineering – solving problems better
• Commoditising complexity
• Control vs. measurement
• Accuracy vs. computation
– e.g. FireFly,
submarine tracking
• Best vs. good enough
• Defuse sensing and
opportunistic data
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpio_ROV#/media/File:US_Navy_040426-N-7949W-
007_Deep_Submergence_Unit_(DSU)_Unmanned_Vehicle_Detachment_(UMA_Det)_personnel_guide_the_Super_Scorpio
_remote_operated_vehicle_(ROV)_to_a_safe_recovery.jpg

41. Engineering – solving problems better
• Commoditising complexity
• Control vs. measurement
• Accuracy vs. computation
• Best vs. good enough
– ACID vs. noSQL, satisficing
• Defuse sensing and opportunistic data

42. Engineering – solving problems better
• Commoditising complexity
• Control vs. measurement
• Accuracy vs. computation
• Best vs. good enough
• Defuse sensing and opportunistic data
– e.g. mobile phone data for early diagnosis

44. in summary
deep digitality
– digital geology has shifted
– money is different
– radical transformation is possible
digital thinking
– breaking constraints
– not just for digital technology