“Interactive Design is defined as a user-oriented field of study that focuses on meaningful communication of media through cyclical and collaborative processes between people and technology.”
Design entails framing the “problem” in parallel with creating possible “solutions.” Design is about transformation and the means available for the designer to initiate change in a particular situation is ultimately the designed artifact. “Interaction design is about shaping digital things for people’s use.” (Lowgren) Digital things are what interaction design shapes. This is essentially to say that interaction designers work in digital materials - software, electronics, communication networks, and the like.
Historically, the digital things made by interaction designers were largely tools - contraptions intended to be used instrumentally, for solving problems and carrying out tasks, and mostly to be used individually. Much of our ingrained best-practice knowledge in the field emanates from this time, expressed in concepts such as user goals, task flows, usability and utility. However, it turns out that digital technology in society today is mostly used for communication, i.e., as a medium. And as a medium, it has characteristics that set it apart from previously existing personal and mass communication media. For example, it lowers the thresholds of media production to include virtually anyone, it provides many-to-many communication with persistent records of all exchanges that transpire, and it offers access to ongoing modifications of its infrastructures. These characteristics of what we might call collaborative media are only beginning to be understood in interaction design, and one might expect that this will be one of the most significant areas for future conceptual developments in this field.
Citation: Lowgren, Jonas (2014): Interaction Design - brief intro. In: Soegaard, Mads and Dam, Rikke Friis (eds.). "The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed.". Aarhus, Denmark: The Interaction Design Foundation. Available online at https://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/interaction_design.html
The following examples of interactive media are samples of both college projects and workable illustrations for web sites, discs, or kiosks. They are viewable through a "Flash player," obtainable through "Adobe.com." If your hardrive requires the free player, it can be safely downoaded from the following link : Flash Player
Puzzle
Click down on the piece you wish to move. The completed image should look like the one below. Good luck.
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Learning
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Flash Gallery
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Star Waps
On March 10, 1876, in Boston, Massachusetts, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Thomas Watson fashioned the device itself; a crude thing made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and some copper wire. But these simple parts and the equally simple first telephone call -- "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you!" -- belie a complicated past. Bell filed his application just hours before his competitor, Elisha Gray, filed notice to soon patent a telephone himself. What's more, though neither man had actually built a working telephone, Bell made his telephone operate three weeks later using ideas outlined in Gray's Notice of Invention, methods Bell did not propose in his own patent.
Digital wireless and cellular roots go back to the 1940s when commercial mobile telephony began. Compared with the furious pace of development today, it may seem odd that mobile wireless hasn't progressed further in the last 60 years. Where are our video watch phones? There were many reasons for this delay but the most important ones were technology, cautiousness, and federal regulation.
As the loading coil and vacuum tube made possible the early telephone network, the wireless revolution began only after low cost microprocessors and digital switching became available. The Bell System, producers of the finest landline telephone system in the world, moved hesitatingly and at times with disinterest toward wireless. Anything AT&T produced had to work reliably with the rest of their network and it had to make economic sense, something not possible for them with the few customers permitted by the limited frequencies available at the time. Frequency availability was in turn controlled by the Federal Communications Commission, whose regulations and unresponsiveness constituted the most significant factors hindering radio-telephone development, especially with cellular radio, delaying that technology in America by perhaps 10 years.
The above notes were taken from my original notes made in 2001, at the same time the “Star Waps” interactive movie was created in Macromedia Director as part of my college HND (Higher National Diploma). 2nd Generation cell phones were still the cutting-edge-technology” of the day, with advances in 3G technology just around the corner. It could be argued that current smartphone (4G) technology has surpassed all predictions and aspirations of the new millennium forecasts, and one can only wonder what the 5th Generation tele communicational media has in store for us all - any speculations?
Please click on the above "Star Waps" image or on the following link to view the interactive movie : Star Waps
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Marina
A brief overview of Swansea
Swansea is Wales’ second largest city, situated on the seaside at the mouth of the River Tawe along the South Wales coastline. The City & County of Swansea offers a wide variety of tourism experiences for pleasure and education to both visitors and residents.
Named after the Scandinavian King Sweyne Forkbeard, “Sweyne’s Eye”, it became a flourishing market town and harbour. Much of Swansea was rebuilt following the ‘blitz’ during the Second World War, and today the modern architecture blends successfully with its historic buildings and monuments. The city boasts an award winning Marina and Maritime Quarter, the largest Enterprise Park in the country and the Tawe Barrage, which was the first tidal barrage across a river in the UK.
The Victorian seaside village of Mumbles is situated approximately five miles to the west of Swansea, and is linked to the city by a promenade running along the sweep of the bay. A former fishing village, Mumbles is today renowned for its shopping and eating out opportunities. Further west lies the spectacular Gower Peninsula, Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which has gained a reputation for its award winning coastline, rolling countryside and myths and legends.
Swansea, as the ‘City by the Sea’ has a rich history, and a thriving cultural and arts scene. There are wide ranging attractions, leisure facilities, an abundance of sporting activities and plenty of opportunities to sample local Welsh food. The city’s delightful parks, gardens and beaches contrast with its lively nightlife and year round entertainment.
Developments include the Dylan Thomas Centre (the first purpose built Literature Centre in the UK), Plantasia (a computer controlled Botanical House and a visitor attraction), Wales’ largest covered Market and the Quadrant Shopping Centre.
The City & County of Swansea offers a whole host of attractions, catering for all ages and interests, many of which are open all year round, easily accessible and enjoyable whatever the weather (e.g. Gower Heritage Centre, Swansea Leisure Centre, Plantasia). The City & County of Swansea is twinned with Mannheim (Germany), Pau (France) and Cork (Republic of Ireland), and has connections with Ferrara (Italy), Aarhuus (Denmark) and a friendship link with Nantong (China).
The best place to start a cyber tour of Swansea is at the Maritime Quarter, the city centre's sea faring heart; replete with yacht marinas, museums, art galleries, a theatre, bars & restaurants, an observatory and a magnificent bayside location which is incomparable in the U.K. It is here that dozens of public art treasures, ranging from stone sculptures to bronze statues, retrace the steps of Swansea's sea faring centuries through symbolism and poetry. The 600 berth bayside marina complex at the Maritime Quarter includes three distinct marinas interlinked by waterways. The larger was founded on Swansea's historic south dock, established for copper trade in the 19th Century. This marina is the focus for a quayside village which has revived the fortunes of the old dock's characterful buildings. Adjacent, the Tawe Basin marina was traditionally an artery which served the main dock. Finally, the River Tawe marina is located at the mouth of the city riverway and is artificially maintained to half tide level by an innovative water barrage.
Swansea Bay is not an end to Maritime Swansea's superb golden coast - but only the beginning! Follow the city sands and you are taken one at a time to the dozen golden bays of Gower, each bearing a unique charm. From the dramatic cliff tops of 3 mile broad Rhossili, to the unique limestone follies of Three Cliffs, every bay shares a common aspect - Swansea's golden seascape simply takes your breath away.
Please click on the above "Swansea Maritime Quarter" image or on the following link to view the interactive movie: Swansea Maritime Quarter
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Warhol
In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes
Illustrator Andy Warhol was one of the most prolific and popular artists of his time, using both avant-garde and highly commercial sensibilities.
Born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist. In the late 1950s, Warhol began devoting more attention to painting, and in 1961, he debuted the concept of "pop art"—paintings that focused on mass-produced commercial goods. In 1962, he exhibited the now-iconic paintings of Campbell's soup cans. These small canvas works of everyday consumer products created a major stir in the art world, bringing both Warhol and pop art into the national spotlight for the first time. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, filmmaking, video installations and writing, and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics.
In 1964, Warhol opened his own art studio, a large silver-painted warehouse known simply as "The Factory." The Factory quickly became one of New York City's premier cultural hotspots, a scene of lavish parties attended by the city's wealthiest socialites and celebrities, including musician Lou Reed, who paid tribute to the hustlers and transvestites he'd met at The Factory with his hit song "Walk on the Wild Side"—the verses of which contain descriptions of individuals who were fixtures at the legendary studio/warehouse in the '60s (Warhol was a friend of Reed's and managed Reed's band, the Velvet Underground).
In the 1970s, Warhol continued to explore other forms of media. He published such books as The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) and Exposures. Warhol also experimented extensively with video art, producing more than 60 films during his career. Some of his most famous films include Sleep, which depicts poet John Giorno sleeping for six hours, and Eat, which shows a man eating a mushroom for 45 minutes.
Warhol died on February 22, 1987, at the age of 58. His personal life has been the subject of much debate and consideration. He is widely believed to have been a gay man, and his art was often infused with homoerotic imagery and motifs. Warhol's life and work simultaneously satirized and celebrated materiality and celebrity. On the one hand, his paintings of distorted brand images and celebrity faces could be read as a critique of what he viewed as a culture obsessed with money and celebrity. On the other hand, Warhol's focus on consumer goods and pop-culture icons, as well as his own taste for money and fame, suggest a life in celebration of the very aspects of American culture that his work criticized. Warhol spoke to this apparent contradiction between his life and work in his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, writing that "making money is art and working is art, and good business is the best art.”
"Andy Warhol." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 13 June 2015.
Please click on the above "Andy Warhol" image or on the following link to view the interactive movie: Warhol