“Smart” applications

The start of the school year always reminds me of how pressed for time educators are these days. Then again, I guess we are all feeling the crush of time.

We’ve been thinking a lot about “smart” systems at Riverside Publishing. How can we build systems that offload some of the work that our users must do?  The Japanese have a term – poka-yoke – which means “fail-safing” or “mistake-proofing.” The concept of poka-yoke first emerged as part of the Japanese “lean manufacturing” process made famous by Toyota. In this process, a poka-yoke is any mechanism that helps an equipment operator (yokeru) avoid mistakes (poka). Indeed, poka-yoke systems attempt to eliminate product defects by proactively preventing, correcting, or directing attention to human errors. Interestingly, originally the Japanese used the term baka-yoke (which means “idiot-proofing”), but the term was softened to the milder poka-yoke.

There are numerous examples of poka-yoke in everyday consumer products:

• Automatic transmissions – the inability of the user to remove the car key if the transmission is first not placed in a “park” position,
• Microwave ovens – a door switch automatically disconnects the activation button when opened. It is impossible to cook anything (and thus be exposed to microwaves) unless the door is closed,
• Cellphone SIM cards – the card is trimmed diagonally in the upper left corner to help users position it correctly

Poka-yoke is, in many respects, a form of what can be called defensive design. Defensive design is the practice of planning for and anticipating all the ways a user might misuse a device or program, and then designing the device or software so that such misuse is impossible (or nearly impossible). Indeed, “Murphy’s Law” is an often-used statement that speaks to why such defensive design is so important. Homer Simpson represents, perhaps, another argument for its importance.

 The “next generation” assessment delivery platform being developed by Riverside Publishing adheres to this overall design philosophy. Riverside is embedding the concept of poka-yoke into the product design, designing the system so that the proper conditions exist for the user in the system before a process begins, preventing problems before they happen. For example, the system will give users information or tools to fix problems as they arise. The system will also attempt to prevent users from working harder than they need to by taking over some (if not all) of the complexity of a task. In alignment with Tesler’s Law, the system will shift as much of the complexity for a task from the user and to the system as possible.

 Riverside is currently working with users to identify what the core complexity of an assessment delivery platform is – to better understand which parts of that complexity a user might want some control over and when. Riverside is designing the new system to do the types of tasks that humans have trouble doing, but that computers can do more easily. Such activities include rapidly performing computational tasks, doing several tasks at once, remembering things indefinitely, and detecting complicated patterns.

Smart applications, such as Riverside’s “next generation” system, evolve over time to adapt the changing needs of its users. Our ultimate goal is provide educators with an almost ambient technology that quite simply, yet completely, satisfies their data and assessment needs.  Feel free to post your thoughts and comments about how “smart” systems might be employed by educators…