The purpose of this session is to collectively brainstorm and prototype new solutions that share one simple characteristic: user interaction with the world is limited to pressing one button.
While simple the power of this interaction can be tremendous, with well known examples such as
- morse code that dominated early days of electronic communication networks
- stephen hawkings' equalizer, which speaks for the prominent theoretical physist, who can only press a button due to his ALS disease.
The ideas brainstormed by the audience can not only improve the lives of many disabled people but also have broad applications in other areas, e.g. allowing to type while people are on the move (imagine twittering while commuting to work with your bike)
The possibilities seem endless and are only limited by your imagination !
One button
What's nice about an interface as simple as one button is that the user interface sort of disappears. Most UIs, like the traditional "desktop" on our screens are way, way, way too complicated, so it becomes an end in itself. Most of us spend much too high a percentage of time organizing our desktop, trying to optimize it, get better at using it, thinking about it, etc. Whereas we really ought to spend that time doing stuff. If you have just one button, there's obviously no point in spending much time thinking about the button.