When i read the “The Arts of interactive Design” , I thought about interactivity as a real conversation. It’s not about one side doing all the talking. It’s a loop where both sides listen, think about what was said, and then respond. If any part of that loop is weak, the whole interaction feels flat and broken.
For me, a strongly interactive system feels thoughtful and alive. It pays close attention to my actions, processes them in a meaningful way, and gives me a response that shows it “understood” me. It’s not just a simple reaction, like a light switch. It’s more like a good friend who remembers what you said earlier and brings it up again later.
Looking at my own p5 sketches, I realize they are mostly just reactive. They respond to a mouse click or a key press, but that’s it. They don’t really listen to how I do something, they don’t think or remember my past actions, and their response is often a simple, pre-set animation. There is no real dialogue.
To improve them, I need to focus on all three parts of the conversation. I want to make my sketches better listeners by paying attention to things like mouse speed or rhythm. I want to give them a simple memory so they can learn from my previous actions and change their behavior over time. Finally, I want their visual responses to feel more like an answer to what I just did, rather than a generic effect. My goal is to move from creating sketches that just react to creating sketches that feel like they are having a simple, but genuine, conversation with me.