In this reading, Chris Crawford presents interesting insights into what interactivity exactly means. I personally had not thought much about this, but this reading gave me a different perspective of looking at things. The idea of interactivity being qualitatively different from reactivity was interesting to me. It seems that there are certain things that are very hard to make interactive if they are kept as it is (such as a book).
The idea of how an interactivity designer is different from a user interface designer was also new to me. I really liked the analogy of form v/s function and how an interactivity designer focus on all three aspects of interactivity (listening, thinking and speaking). He also writes about graphic designing as being merely a subset of interactive designing.
I had never considered the challenges that interactivity designers would face in an industry where this is still an emerging field and, in a context, where interactivity designers are generally younger and less technically proficient.
Overall, this reading gave me a better understanding of what interactivity is and why it is important. The example that the author gave of a teacher being better than a mere book because of interactivity was very useful and helped me realize its importance. I hope to incorporate this way of thinking in designing future projects.
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