Research for Final by Ellie (Meng Yihan)

Through the past weeks’ learning experience and my own research, I have gained a better understanding of the term “interaction” and it is interesting to see how my definition of interaction has changed during this semester. In this post, I will first go back to my previous ideas on “interaction”, followed will be a display of my research and some analysis on how “interaction” is presented by referring to two projects I found interesting. Finally, I will come to the stage of clarifying my new definition of “interaction”.
When I first thought about interaction before the midterm project, all I based on was the materials I read and the very limited researches I made. I defined it as “a series of processes involving two or more actors’ effort to achieve a mutual goal (for entertainment or live more effectively and conveniently) and is based on the ability, which creatures or artificial objects possess, to give reactions to external stimuli (to each other) through thinking or processing”. Not soon after that, when I finished working on my midterm project, I modified my definition according to how we worked on our project. Being conscious about emotional feelings or ideological morality has become an important part of my definition since it is the basis of giving reactions accordingly.
I was quite satisfied with that definition. However, after I did more researches, my opinions changed slightly again. For this second research in this semester, I believe it would be helpful for me to see how the mass thinks about the idea of “interactive project”, therefore, I typed “interactive” in the searching bar of Youtube. Here I have some interesting and inspiring results for that. One video that ranked actually pretty high in the searching result, yet I see it as the counterexample of interactive. It is called “learn how to make interactive projects”, video uploaded by Technique Tuesday. The video teaches viewers how to make a so-called “interactive” notes or cards. While I disagree with the producer’s idea of calling it interactive since, as what I see with the video, the whole project does not include the part of the object giving feedback or reaction according to how people act. The card thing is interesting and entertaining, but it is not what’s most important for interaction.


So what is important? The other video I found could answer this question perfectly: “DIY Interactive Coffee Table”. After seeing the introduction of the table, I feel instantly that this is the project that could satisfy all the requisition of being interactive. I than deeper analyzed it, and here is the things I found that made it interactive: 1. The clear sign of receiving the signal or detecting the action of people. When people press the remote, the light of the table would change to the color that is decided by people. 2. The visible signal of giving back a reaction. The instant one cup is placed on the table, the table would change the color of light in that specific square. 3. The application of this project could suit the original purpose of making this area in the living room more vivid perfectly. From these things in the coffee table project and what I read in readings, I find what is most important for interaction. Bret Victor stated in his article about interaction that “…visions matter. Visions give people a direction and inspire people to act, and a group of inspired people is the most powerful force in the world…I really want it to be something worthwhile. Something that genuinely improves how we interact.” (A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design) It is hard, even impossible for us to see the interconnection between objects and virtual information going back and forth. Without sensing it, the process of interaction will not be whole. Therefore, the ability to give responses or reaction repetitively and the sign of showing it with sensible signals, especially vision, are the most important elements of things being “interactive”.


So here comes my new definition of interaction: interaction is a series of processes concerning emotional feelings or ideological morality which could go repetitively involving two or more actors’ effort to achieve a mutual goal through thinking or processing and the process of it is presented with sensible signals.

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