Principles of Calm Technology
To understand and apply Calm Technology to modify existing products or develop new ones, Amber Case, the leading researcher and founder of Calm Technology™, has identified some basic principles to guide or follow during these processes. In total, there are eight Principles for Calm Technology. These are not meant to be followed blindly like rules set in stone, but rather as guidelines to steer you through your design process. In her book, Amber Case advises that „not every tech project needs all eight“, but keeping those that apply to your project in mind when making design decisions can help the project, the product and its success later on.
Below are the eight principles and an example of what they can mean or how they can influence a finished product.
I. Technology should require the smallest possible amount of attention
The chargers for Microsoft Surface Tablets & Books have a small white LED light built into the connector so you can see at a glance whether the device is charging or not, without having to turn it on or look at the display.
II. Technology should inform and create calm
Status indicators used in online communication tools such as Teams, Discord or Google Chat. They use small colour-coded circles to indicate the availability of the person you are messaging, without interrupting you from messaging them. But they do set the right expectation for how long it might take them to respond.
III. Technology should make use of the periphery
Lane assistants in cars send a brief vibration signal through your steering wheel to remind you to stay in your lane when you are approaching its edge, without taking your primary attention away from the windscreen and the act of driving, using the peripheral space of attention.
IV. Technology should amplify the best of technology and the best of humanity
Ultraleap’s hand tracking products allow us to interact with technology using natural hand gestures such as pinching. For this pinch gesture, it not only allows one specific, perfectly executed hand pose. Rather, it allows a variety of different variations of the pose and does not require us to keep the pose in the same shape all the time, because that would be natural for a machine but not for a human.
V. Technology can communicate, but doesn´t need to speak
The Roomba vacuum cleaner makes a happy noise when it has finished cleaning and a sad noise when it is stuck or in trouble. It also shows a green light when it is clean and an orange light when it is dirty. This way, it is able to inform you of its status and problems without the need for lengthy voice messages, by simply communicating the minimal amount of signals necessary.
VI. Technology should work even when it fails
The perfect example of this, although it is not realistic to implement it as well as in this example in every product, is escalators. Even if they brake down or stop completely, they can still be used as stairs to fulfil their primary function of enabling people to reach the next floor of a structure.
VII. The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem
An electronic kettle that uses only a heating coil to boil water, and then uses the pressure created by the boiling water to emit a sound to signal its completion. Rather than using an additional electronic actuator to produce the sound.
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
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Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
VIII. Technology should respect social norms
The Google Glass smart glasses, unlike any other video recording device, didn’t have a publicly visible light to signal when it was recording and when it wasn’t. Because of this uncertainty, anyone interacting with people wearing the device felt like they were being recorded all the time. This, combined with other factors, led to the failure of the whole product.
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