How do the seams in a system manifest enhanced experience?
Thinking about the conversation on Tuesday about the Pickpocketing game and the less than stellar responsiveness of its PDA's user interface, I wondered if the game would be as attractive if the interface was more responsive.
I came to a conclusion (based on the responses of Johanna and others and my own experiences in similar situations) that it probably wouldn't. It seems the faults of the game made it more interesting and deepened the experience for the user because they had to devote more of thier attention towards learning how to exploit its emergent properties. Which leads me to believe that the failure of perfect seamlessness between virtual and tangible interfaces can be potentially beneficial from an experiential point of view. Maybe having the seams is better if the target of ubiquitous computing is not purely enhanced productivity but a better productivity to pleasurable experience ratio.
Also, I think the Urban Probe paradigm seems to tread on thin ice as far as actively experimenting on people (in the "Lost Letter Technique") without their consent.