To me, interaction is an act of communication that allows for the transfer of meaningful information between two things. For example, Alias , acts as a middleman that streamlines communication between users and smart devices. This allows the interaction between the user and the device more efficient, only listening to meaningful or useful information, and preventing the device from listening to users when not intended. On the other hand, South Korea’s Greeting Bots, are not interactive in my opinion. As I do not find greetings to be meaningful information. Rather, the ‘interaction’ that users get from these bots are merely a for-show action that provides little to no useful or meaningful information to the user.
After the group project, the only change that I would make from my previous definition of interaction is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a meaningful transfer of information, but it can also be an interaction between two things that has an effect on the user. This better fits with my understanding of the Alias, as it may make the users feel more comfortable in their own home, without fear that their smart devices are listening to what they are saying at all times. Applying this new definition, the South Korea bots can align better with my definition, as there are several videos of young children also greeting the robots back, signifying that the robots had an effect on them that was enough for the children to justify a greeting back.
The idea that we really focused on during our group project, was to have a meaningful impact on someones life. At first we just wanted to make a device that 3D prints footwear with no purpose in mind. Then, we sat down and thought of all the people who could benefit off this device. This quickly brought us to developing it with fashionistas in mind, but to the point where it could benefit those with less. Folks experiencing homelessness could benefit significantly from this device. Older folks with back problems could benefit by have a shoe fitted with the proper arch support. This fits both of my definitions for interaction, as the device would receive meaningful information on the shape of the user’s foot and be capable of printing a shoe that works best for their foot and it could have a meaningful impact on the user.
This is comparable to how the Alias can make users feel more comfortable at home, but the impact is even more meaningful. People spend so much time on their feet, and have proper arch support can have a significant impact on everything from posture, muscles, to sleep. Combating these things has a massive effect on improving an individual’s quality of life.