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Chapter 4 – Adopting Technology

Interviews with David Liddle, Mat Hunter, Rikako Sakai, David Kelley, and Paul Mercer

David Liddle, project leader for the design of the Xerox Star, the founder of Metaphor Computer, and head of Interval Research,

explains that a technology is adopted in three phases2—the enthusiast phase, the professional phase, and the consumer phase—and that these phases apply to the technology of a remote control or camera just as much as to a computer. Mat Hunter was lead interaction designer in the team at that developed an interaction architecture for digital photography with Kodak. Rikako Sakai from Canon developed the screen interactions for PhotoStitch, the feature that helps photographers connect images together to form a panorama.

David Kelley, Chairman of IDEO, traces the development of interaction design from screen graphics to complete experiences, and proposes a future where designers act as integrators.

Paul Mercer, an inventive software engineer with a background at Apple, as well as founder of Pixo and Iventor, tells the story of the iPod development in the context of his more general contribution to the creation of software tools for the design of portable devices.