Interactivity
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In the fields of information science, communication, and industrial design, there is debate over the meaning of Interactivity. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels: Noninteractive, when a message is not related to previous messages; Reactive, when a message is related only to one immediately previous message; and Interactive, when a message is related to a number of previous messages and to the relationship between them.<ref>Sheizaf Rafaeli defined Interactivity as "an expression of the extent that in a given series of communication exchanges, any third (or later) transmission (or message) is related to the degree to which previous exchanges referred to even earlier transmissions. Rafaeli, 1988 </ref>
Interactivity is similar to the degree of responsiveness, and is examined as a communication process in which each message is related to the previous messages exchanged, and to the relation of those messages to the messages preceding them.
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Human to human communication
Human communication is the basic example of interactive communication. Because of that, many conceptualizations of interactivity are based on anthropomorphic definitions. For example, complex systems that detect and react to human behavior are sometimes called interactive. Under this perspective, interaction includes responses to human physical manipulation like movement, body language, and/or changes in psychological states.
Human to artefact communication
In the context of communication between a human and an artefact, interactivity refers to the artefact’s interactive behaviour as experienced by the human user. This is different from other aspects of the artefact such as its visual appearance, its internal working, and the meaning of the signs it might mediate. For example, the interactivity of an iPod is not its physical shape and colour (its so-called "design"), its ability to play MP3 music, or its storage capacity—it is the behaviour of its user interface as experienced by its user. This includes the way you move your finger on its input wheel, the way this allows you to select a tune in the playlist, and the way you control the volume.
An artefact’s interactivity is best perceived through use. A bystander can imagine how it would be like to use an artefact by watching others use it, but it is only through actual use that its interactivity is fully experienced and "felt". This is due to the kinesthetic nature of the interactive experience. It is similar to the difference between watching someone drive a car and actually driving it. It is only through driving the car that you can experience and "feel" how this car differs from other cars.
New Media academic Vincent Maher defines interactivity as "the relation constituted by a symbolic interface between its referential, objective functionality and the subject."<ref> http://nml.ru.ac.za/maher/?p=7</ref>
Computer science
The term "look and feel" is often used to refer to the specifics of a computer system's user interface. Using this as a metaphor, the "look" refers to its visual design, while the "feel" refers to its interactivity. Indirectly this can be regarded as an informal definition of interactivity.
A more detailed discussion of how interactivity has been conceptualized in the human-computer interaction literature, and how the phenomenology of the French philosopher Merleau-Ponty can shed light on the user experience, see (Svanaes 2000).
In computer science, interactive refers to software which accepts and responds to input from humans—for example, data or commands. Interactive software includes most popular programs, such as word processors or spreadsheet applications. By comparison, noninteractive programs operate without human contact; examples of these include compilers and batch processing applications. If the response is complex enough it is said that the system is conducting social interaction and some systems try to achieve this through the implementation of social interfaces.
Interactivity in new media
Interactivity also relates to new media technologies where humans are now able to intereact with the lastest technologies around them including the red button on the television and also being able to choose certain camera angles as well as creating web blogs and podcasts etc.
Notes
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References
- Rafaeli, S. (1988). Interactivity: From new media to communication. In R. P. Hawkins, J. M. Wiemann, & S. Pingree (Eds.), Sage Annual Review of Communication Research: Advancing Communication Science: Merging Mass and Interpersonal Processes, 16, 110-134. Beverly Hills: Sage.
- Svanaes, D. (2000). Understanding Interactivity: Steps to a Phenomenology of Human-Computer Interaction. NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. PhD, (public domain: http://dag.idi.ntnu.no/interactivity.pdf)
External Links
- O B S E R V E R / D Details of interactive art installation by artists Daniel Simpkins and Venya Krutikov.
