After reading The Art of Interactive Design, Ch. 1, I’m realizing that we as a society and industry throw around the term “interactivity” very liberally. I used to classify interactivity as response to user input, but that may be too broad or too simple. For example, my p5.js sketches consist of clicks from a user to make something happen, but it’s the same process over and over again. For it to be more complexly interactive, these inputs and outputs should engage in a conversation. Maybe as time goes on and more inputs are made by the user, different responses are created. Depending on the type of input, different outputs will be created. Or if a user’s input can change how a system operates. I think giving users more agency in how a “story” plays out is interactivity. A movie for example doesn’t let the viewer change its outcome. However, interactivity gives users agency (albeit in a confined system, but said system should give users enough freedom to feel like they have power to change things the way they want to). Over time, a system should respond differently to a user’s input given the amount of history and new information it has to work with (kind of like in a conversation). Interactive systems aren’t stagnant and progress with time; this allowed users to stay engaged. If a process presents the same steps repeatedly, how are users supposed to care and give their sustained attention? I think giving users the ability or tools to create something entirely new can also be implemented into interactivity as prolonged engagement is the goal of any good conversation. However, the tool can’t be a standalone piece, but a part of a system since “tool” implies no complex thought behind receiving inputs. A piano for example is a tool for creating something entirely new, but a system that senses dance moves to create sounds based on the user’s movement over time (sounds build up over time, not just linearly mapping one movement to one sound) might constitute more as interactive.
In the future, I should take these principles into account and create more complex interactions where multiple processes are happening, not just one.