Journal 4: Introduction of Digital Artist: Joy Mountford
Belle (Ying-Tzu) Huang
Com 597: Theories and Practice of Interactivity
Autumn 2007
Oct. 31 2007
Journal 4
Introduction of Digital Artist: Joy Mountford
Brief Biography
* Undergraduate work at University College, London.
* Graduate work at University of Illinois in Engineering Psychology.
* Designed advanced user interfaces for military avionics system at Honeywell.
* Worked at MCC, America's 5th generation computer consortium.
* Manager of the Human Interface Group at Apple Computer for nearly 8 years.
* Joined Interval Research Corporation.
The idea that someone with a psychology background was making computers easier to use was revolutionary for users. Joy’s education was in psychology, and her practical training experience primarily in aviation. Joy Mountford came to US to understand how pilots multi-task influence flights and how pilots get their jobs done more successfully and safely. She began her career in HCI at Honeywell where she designed user interfaces for military avionics systems. The "man-machine systems" was looking at how to make that coupling more effective, which is related to "human factors", or now we call it ergonomics.
Then she moved into artificial intelligence at MCC, a research consortium in Austin, Texas, and started to look at a similar kind of display world, one used not by a pilot but by a knowledge worker involved with navigating large data sets in 3D.
Next step she moved to the taking-off company—Apple. In '86, Apple started a Human Interface Group. Joy ended up at Apple managing what ended up being a large and successful group, probably during a heyday of Apple. She was there from '86 to '94.
One of the things that Joy’s group at Apple pioneered was the design and uses of QuickTime. They helped create Navigable Movies, which was the precursor to QuickTime VR, along with content illustrations of what you could do with video on a computer. They kept pushing and finally computer users started to realize that they can see new things happening on a computer, and make hypertexted information come to life in a more consumer manner.
Facing and making the change of people’s using experiences, Joy once made a comment as follow, “I believe interface people should foster such creativity and experiments by encouraging some different things to happen. Sometimes distracting things happen but also sometimes that is a very good thing too. Unless you keep that cross-pollination going, you won't make a lot of progress with making technology capabilities pervasive.”[1]
In '94, Joy determined to work at Interval research, funded by co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen. David had the charter to create an open-ended research consortium of people who were trying to design new industries.
Joy led a team in Interval Called Soundscapes to study the creation and use of music. The “Bead Box” was their achievements. The toy-like device is developed for people who want to make music but have not mastered a conventional instrument notation or the meaning of a score. A person could create a collage of different sound samples by placing beads and vary them dynamically by removing and repositioning the beads.
But a good product sometimes doesn’t fit the consuming market. Bill Moggridge mentioned about Bead Box in his book “Designing Interactions,” “The Bead Box project succeeded in this (developing a well product which is based on a deep understanding of latent user needs and opportunities for innovation,) but it was not particularly well positioned for retail and business issues necessary for succeed in the market.”
Related Links:
Joy Mountford’s Video Interview: http://www.designinginteractions.com/interviews/JoyMountford
Samples of QuickTime VR:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=34EzOPUkpc4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pd7qqXxPZNI
More about Bead Box:
Methods and systems for providing programmable computerized interactors, http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6556184.html
Reference:
1. Idbias, People: S. Joy Mountford http://www.idbias.com/people.html
2. Georgia Tech, College of Computing, HCI Resources: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Gregory.Abowd/hci-resources/bios/jeff/Joy.htm
3. Joy Mountford Interview, Noise Between Stations, http://www.noisebetweenstations.com/personal/weblogs/?p=1414
4. S. Joy Mountford on Interface Design, ACM IT Magazine and Forum, http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/v5i19_mountford.html
[1] Refer to: S. Joy Mountford on Interface Design, ACM IT Magazine and Forum, http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/v5i19_mountford.html
