Week 3 – Reading Reflection

I think a strongly interactive system would be a system that does more than just react in one simple way. In the reading written by Chris Crawford, he explains that interactivity isn’t always one level but actually can have different degrees, from high to low. One example he gave of strong interactivity is a conversation as it isn’t one way but both ways as both sides do the talking, listening, and responding. From this, I understood that in order for a system to have a high level of interactivity it should understand what the user is actually doing and give a response, so both ways. He also gives the example of low interaction which is the refrigerator light, because it only turns on when the door opens and turns off when it closes, yes, the fridge is responding so its interactive however only in a really simple way. I think if an interactive design is really strong it would respond in different ways depending on what the user does. It should also be able to change its response depending on the users actions instead of just always giving the same response. 

For my p5 sketches, I could improve the level of interaction by giving the user more control over what happens so instead of just having one same response each click I could use the mouse position or the movement to create different outcomes. For example, in my new sketch instead of only one click to open the door and keeping it there I would also add  another click to close the door. From this it would make my sketch feel more like a back and forth conversation between the user and the program rather just one straight simple reaction.

Leave a Reply