Developing Usable Experiences

Focus plus Context

December 7th, 2007 7:32 am —  297 views

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This notion of focus plus context and understanding it’s implications is of particular interest to those studying the interaction of people and computers1.

Basically, focus plus context is about awareness. And awareness has a lot to do with quality of life. It is obvious that we have to pay attention to what is going on right now, today, this moment. But we must also take time to relate what we are doing now with the bigger picture. One without the other can cause much unnecessary confusion. There is always a bigger picture.

The subject of focus plus context has come up in a number of lectures and is an important concept to consider as digital information and our means to access it grows. But being in a somber and reflective mood this morning, I can’t but help see that this idea of focus plus context has importance beyond just interacting with information.

I think that Buddhism and Zen have embraced this same notion for some time. Realizing that one does not exist independent of everything else is a way of appreciating context. But yet focus on what is happening right now is necessary at the same time. In Zen there is the notion of Big Mind and Small Mind that shares similarities with the notion of focus plus context.

A great Buddhist leader suggests that all actions have short and long term consequences. We must consider things according to circumstances and that long term is more important than short term. This could be taken to mean that context is more important than focus. It further reasons that there can be no focus without a context, whether the context is known or not. It is always there.

In Zen this same idea can be found in the notion of Big Mind:

Big Mind is the mind which goes beyond discrimination and includes everything. Suzuki Roshi would admonish us to always live in Big Mind, but that small mind is an expression of Big Mind. It’s not bad. Small mind is necessary, otherwise we would not have it. But small mind should be guided by Big Mind, and as a channel for expressing Big Mind. So our everyday life should be based on Big Mind so that Big Mind is expressing itself through our speech, actions, and thoughts.2

So for me today, I think about context. My current efforts in school, in my job, in my marriage, and I think about them in the greater sense of my life. I think about what my family and friends are going through with health issues, financial issues, the challenges of raising children. I think about the way technology is shaping our lives but I remember that living is going on despite technology. There is living and this is it.

Image: This is a feature on my phone that effectively demonstrates focus plus context with respect to browsing long web pages on a small display. It was this picture (taken the other night so I could sketch a cool design idea), that got me thinking about the parallels between this concept and Buddhist practice. Kind of interesting.

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  1. Also known as the field of HCI…I just couldn’t bring myself to use an acronym so early in my post. [↩]
  2. It is worth browsing the rest of this talk: http://www.intrex.net/chzg/mel10.htm [↩]

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