Future design mindful of the MoRAS

  • Authors:

  • George W. Furnas

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

  • Venue:
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

As human-computer interaction (HCI) expands its scope, the proper context for the design of information technology (IT) is increasingly an interconnected mosaic of responsive adaptive systems (MoRAS) including people's heads, organizations, communities, markets, and cultures. The introduction of IT not only perturbs the individual systems but also critically changes the coupling structure of the whole mosaic that comprises them. These various systems respond and adapt to these changes, in effect undertaking their own sort of "design" efforts, sometimes at odds with explicit intentions. The need to understand the role of all these different systems in the outcome explains why IT design has become an increasingly interdisciplinary effort. It is likely that our designs will be more successful if we become more mindful of this bigger picture. This article discusses the motivations for the MoRAS perspective; briefly sketches the MoRAS itself; and presents some tales that illustrate its dynamics, the role of IT within it, and the implications for the future trajectory of HCI. The article concludes with design implications and an agenda for furthering the framework.