In my opinion, I would classify the characteristics of a strongly interactive system as one that requires “two actors,” as Crawford mentioned. Interaction is not something as surface level as a book or a movie that you watch or listen to, but something that reacts to you and requires a back and forth interaction between the user and the system. What surprised me while reading was finding out that things I thought were interactive, such as dancing, opening a fridge door, and watching a play, were actually either not interactive or had a very low degree of interactivity. A strongly interactive system should be able to listen to the user’s actions, process them, and respond accordingly. I also agree with Crawford’s idea that interactivity exists on a scale, as simply responding to an action does not necessarily make something highly interactive.
Looking back at my p5 sketches, I think I could improve their level of interactivity by making the user’s actions have more of an effect on what happens within the sketch. For example, in my generative desert night sky, clicking currently generates a new arrangement of stars with different positions, sizes, speeds, and colors. Although the sketch responds to the user, the response is still quite limited because clicking always produces a similar result. To make it more interactive, I could allow different user actions to affect different parts of the artwork, such as having the movement of the mouse change the direction of the stars or allowing the user to affect the appearance of the sky. I think this would create more of the conversation Crawford describes. I would want to improve the degree of user interaction by not only implementing interactive functions and concepts where the user would be able to interact with the artwork or code, but also working harder on the function and form of the design. As I learned while reading, interactive design isn’t only about making an interface look good or function correctly, but considering both aspects to design the entire experience of interacting with something.