The Disruptive User - Internet Appliances and the Management of Complexity

Abstract

Bringing networked computing to new users and new contexts entails a disruptive decrease in the level of user patience for complexity. This paper discusses the tensions involved in making devices as easy to use as traditional appliances, within the context of the open and rapidly changing Internet. It distinguishes class 1 appliances, whose function is fixed by the manufacturer, from class 2 appliance, whose functionality is determined by an associated service provider, and posits a third class of appliance that would achieve true ease of use by leaving control with the user while simultaneously automating much of the complexity associated with that control.