After reading “The Art of Interactive Design” by Chris Crawford, I found it really interesting how he critiques common ideas about interactivity, continuously giving examples while showing why something might initially seem interactive but then explaining why he disagrees. Each time he explains a concept, I think to myself, “Yes, I see this as interactive,” but then he challenges that assumption in a way that convinces me to see it differently. It made me wonder: is interactivity utterly subjective? Can something be called interactive if it only engages one age group, or does it have to be recognized as interactive by most people? Crawford suggests that we can think of interactivity as high, moderate, or low, rather than a simple yes-or-no quality. Interactivity, in his view, is about change, not stagnation; it’s about creating a system that can evolve and respond in better ways, rather than just maintaining the same thing. Like he said, “You can turn up the reaction volume as high as you want, but playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at 20,000 watts does not make it a painting.”
I believe the characteristics of a strongly interactive system are when it is capable of change, not permanent or fixed, and when the person interacting with it can contribute their own personality to the process. I like how he breaks interactivity down into listening, thinking, and speaking; all three need to happen for it to feel real. If one of these is missing, it doesn’t work, just like a conversation falls apart if one person isn’t really listening. Movies, books, or even some games might seem interactive at first, but they fail because they mostly just speak; they don’t listen or think about the user’s input. For me, interactivity is about creating a space where the user can engage fully and shape their experience, making it personal and dynamic. The system isn’t just reacting; it’s part of a back-and-forth process, and that’s what makes it strong and meaningful.
To improve the degree of user interaction in my p5 sketches, I think the key is to make the sketches more responsive to the user’s actions and give them a sense of control over what happens. For example, I could let users influence multiple aspects of the sketch at once, like color, shape, and movement, so their choices feel meaningful. I could also let the user control some actions from the sketch, like giving them options to choose whether they want one interactive response or another. Later on, when we learn how to include sound features, I could make sketches that track the mouse or input sound continuously and adapt dynamically, rather than only responding at specific moments—which I know might take a long while for me to figure out and really learn how to use.