The Art of Interactive Design” by Chris Crawford is a fascinating book as it explores the distinction between a really interactive system and basic “reactive” gimmicks. Crawford characterizes the interaction as a dynamic process with three fundamental elements: hearing, thinking, and speaking. He also emphasizes on how these three elements are crucial for a meaningful interaction between the technology and the user and extends on them separately. This is why, in my opinion, every single interaction of the system with the user needs to be meticulously prepared and ensure that all three ways in which we interact with the system—listening, speaking, and thinking—are in line with the intended usage.
Regarding implementing the reading’s insights into my work, I think I might increase the degree of interaction by paying more attention on how the system “listens” and “speaks” to the user. My p5.js sketches could react to basic inputs like mouse movements or clicks right now, but they don’t necessarily provide deliberate or meaningful response. For examples, in the pixelated text sketch (Week 4: Generative text), I could have incorporated nuances into the ways user could react with my sketch. Maybe a random song plays when the user presses the “Enter” key, or an interesting home screen with brief instructions, and so on. This would mean that I would have to place myself into the user’s shoes and make design choices according to that.