When I started reading the assigned material, I was entertained by the author’s voice, as it was not what I expected from a book. Not only that, but starting the chapter challenging the idea of what “interaction” means made me think, “What is that video games and productivity share?”. For example, we could argue that both of them require a certain level of concentration to be fully completed, but while one is applying all the degrees of interactivity (listening, thinking and speaking), the latter is very dependent on the activity being done. My homework can tell me what instructions to follow, but it cannot think on its own, although a video game will be able to give me feedback as its nature is more communicative; without this, video games would be unsatisfying.
Furthermore, I never imagined myself looking at a fridge as a medium of interactivity, since for me the concept of “interaction” was always applied in the medium of technology: the user does an action and the computer communicates. Regarding the design aspect of interactivity, it is complicated. While a Graphic Designer is important to ensure visual consistency throughout a project, as the author says, it is not all eye candy. Similarly to video games, there needs to be someone who can understand what steps to follow to have a good level of interaction and engagement. A video game designer would not put the hardest level at the start of the game as it would create a lot of frustration; likewise, a designer focused on intractability would not force users to write commands on a website to enter a page. All graphic and interactable elements need to coexist to allow the best user engagement possible.