Defining "interactivity"

"Interactivity" has been used widely and everyone seems to have a different interpretation. The quickest way to look it up is searching on Wikipedia. I quote part of the page regarding in New Media below, quoting is necessary since information is subjected to be modified freely over time on Wikipedia, as well as all informations found on the internet.

Interactivity in new media

New media is an expanding term that encompasses all new technologies we have today. Interactivity is seen as a key association with new media as it basically sets apart the 'old' and new medias. Old media could only offer a sit-back type interaction, whereas new media is much more engaging to their audiences.

Technologies such as DVDs and digital TV are classic examples of interactive media devices, where a user can control what they watch and when. However, the Internet has become the prime model of an interactive system. Users can become fully immersed in their experiences by viewing material, commenting it and then actively contributing to it. McMillan (2005) states that interactivity can occur at many different levels and degrees of engagement and that it is important to differentiate between these levels. Use-to-user interaction via the internet; para-social interaction, where new forms of media are generated online; and user-to-system interactivity which is the way devices can be engaged with by a user.

Lev Manovich (2001) also makes a clear definition of what interactivity means for the user. He refers to 'open interactivity' as actions such as computer programming and developing media systems, whereas 'closed interactivity' is merely where the elements of access are determined by the user. This definition is part of his principle of variability (one of Manovich's key features of new media).

Interactivity also relates to new media art technologies where humans and animals are able to interact with and change the course of an artwork. Artists and researchers around the world are working on unique interfaces to allow new forms of interaction that extend beyond the QWERTY keyboard and the now ubiquitous mouse. Artists, such as Stelarc work to define new interfaces that challenge our notion of what is possible when interacting with machines. His Hexapod for example looks like an insect though walks like a dog and the locomotion is controlled by shifting the body weight and turning the torso. Others like Ken Rinaldo have defined unique interfaces for fish in which Siamese Fighting Fish are able to control their rolling robotic fish bowls to interact across the gap of the glass. Simon Penny's Petit Mal allows a two wheeled sculpture to sense and respond to human presence and intelligently navigate the environment.

Denis McQuail mentions interactivity as one of the main characteristic of the new media. He quotes: "Interactivity: as indicated by the ratio of response or initiative on the part of the user to the "offer" of the source/sender"...

However, to further investigate the subject matter, quoting from The Language of New Media, by Lev Manovich 2001. Cambridge. The MIT Press.

The Myth of Interactivity

We have only one principle still remaining from the original list: interactivity.

New media is interactive. In contrast to old media where the order of presentation is fixed, the user can now interact with a media object. In the process of interaction the user can choose which elements to display or which paths to follow, thus generating a unique work. In this way the user becomes the co-author of the work.

As with digital I avoid using the word interactive in this book without qualifying it, for the same reason--I find the concept too broad to be truly useful.

In relation to computer-based media, the concept of interactivity is a tautology. Modern HCI is by definition interactive... Therefore, to call computer media "interactive" is meaningless--it simply means stating the most basic fact about computers.

Rather than evoking this concept by itself, I use a number of other concepts, such as menu-based interactivity, scalability, simulation, image-interface, and image-instrument, to describe between "closed" and "open" interactivity is just one example of this approach.

Although it is relatively easy to specify different interactive structures used in new media objects, it is much more difficult to deal theoretically with user' experiences of these structures... All classical, even moreso modern, art is"interactive" in a number of ways. Ellipes in literary narration, missing details of objects in visual art, and other representational "shortcuts" require the user to fill in missing information...

...When we use the concept of "interactive media" exclusively in relation to computer-based media, there is the danger that we will interpret "interaction" literally, equating it with physical interaction between a user and a media object (pressing a button, choosing a link, moving the body), at the expense of psychological interaction...

This mistake is not new; on the contrary, it is a structural feature of the history of modern media. The literal interpretation of interactivity is just the latest example of a larger modern trend to externalize mental life, a process in which media technologies--photography, film, VR--have played a key role. Beginning in the nineteenth century, we witness recurrent claims by the users and theorists of new media technologies, from Francis Galton (the inventor of composite photography in the 1870s) to Hugo Munterbury, Sergei Eisenstein and, recently, Jaron Lanier, that these technologies externalize and objectify the mind.

Another definition quoted from New media : a critical introduction, by Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant, and Kieran Kelly.

As we have noted, digital media offer us a significant increase in our opportunity to manipulate and intervene in media. These multiple opportunities are often referred to as the interactive potential of new media.

Interactivity has become a broad term which carries a cluster of associated meanings. Most commentators agree that it is a concept that has to be further defined if it is to have any anaytical purchase...

To declare a system interactive is to endorse it with magic power. (Asrseth 1997: 48)

At the ideological level, interactivity is understood as one of the key 'value added' characteristic of new media. Where 'old' media offer passive consumption new media offer interactivity. The term stands for a more powerful sense of user engagement with media texts, a more independent relation to sources of knowledge, individualised media use, and greater user choice. These ideas about the value of 'interactivity' draw upon the popular discorse of neo-liberalism which treats the user as, above all, a consumer...

As diversified as "interactivity" defines, the Wikipedia definitions is relatively incomplete and inconsistense. The latter 2 references both suggested to use the term "interactivity" with caution, a more specific descriptions related to case studies are required; otherwise such "interactivity" is rendered into a vague, empty word.

Rather than an element in the new media, interactivity is also being studied extensively in the practical aspects. Carnegie Mellon University offered an interesting program called The Master of Design in Interaction Design, focusing on the human-computer (or machine) interface design. The program desciption had modified lately.

A decade and a half ago, when the School of Design offered a pioneering course in interface design, the work focused on screen interfaces for human-computer interaction. Since then, boundaries between hardware and software, device and person have blurred considerably and will only continue to blur and blend. Today, screen interfaces are a small part of the products we design that help people live, learn, work, and play.

The Master of Design in Interaction Design is a two-year professional program, which trains students from diverse backgrounds to become practicing interaction designers. A combination of studio and seminar courses cover topics including: communication theory, user research and concept evaluation methods, advanced topics in interaction design, and client based concept development. The program of study culminates in both a written thesis and thesis project.

Here is a presentation of one of the CMU students from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

Johnny Chung Lee

TEDtalksDirector
April 11, 2008