Environments the Future of Interaction Design

ENVIRONMENTS
The Future of Interaction Design

I am an interaction designer.
interaction10 Kendra Shimmell Copyright: 2010 | illustration by www.formerfactory.com

I am also a dancer.

Choreography

Defining a structure to foster specific types of movement
and interaction—anticipating the way that users and
information want to flow & makes affordance for change
over time.
- Dan Klyn, from his definition of Information Architecture http://vimeo.com/8866160
“
”

Now in the case of dance, choreography involves things like
initiation of movement, phrasing, shape, interaction with space,
and eﬀort to convey emotion.
Both interaction design and dance utilize order, patterns,
relationships, taxonomy, and time—for the purpose
of creating meaning and engaging the audience.

Exploring new ways to engage the audience through interactivity and active participation.
interaction10 Kendra Shimmell Copyright: 2010 | illustration by www.formerfactory.com | Environments Laboratory OSU, 2000-2001

In 2000, as dancers we were ahead of the curve
in terms of thinking about interaction in a more tangible sense.
While as a designer working in my ﬁrst internship, I was still
thinking about whether the navigation should be on the left-side
or the top-side of the webpage.
My work as a dancer felt so out there. At ﬁrst, I didn’t make the
connection regarding the potential that my two worlds presented.

Fast forward to today. None of it seems very“out there”anymore.
- Example shown,“Reactable” electronic music instrument developed within the Music Technology Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra
in Barcelona, Spain by Sergi Jordà, Marcos Alonso, Martin Kaltenbrunner and Günter Geiger. <www.reactable.com>
interaction10 Kendra Shimmell Copyright: 2010

codiﬁed metaphoric integrated

A significant transition in the very nature
of the products that are going to emerge in the future…
These new products are going to look less and less like the
repacking of the basic PC graphical user interface…
no longer mainly passive entities that we have dealt with
in the past… buildings are going to become increasingly
active and reactive
- Bill Buxton from his book “Sketching User Experiences,” 2007
“
”

I believe that active environments
(sensitive to movement and intent) are
going to play a more prominent role
in our future design challenges.

Looking at active environments, what are some
of the dimensions we’ll be dealing with?

2D vs 3D • Acceptance • Active vs passive • Affordance • Architecture/layout
Authentication • Blob vs human • Boundaries • Cognitive load • Competitive
vs collaborative • Content orientation • Context • Culture • Discrete vs continuous
Duration • Enacting • Ergonomics • Feedback • Frame of reference • Habitual
vs triggered • Human factors • Input blindness • Intent • Interference • Latency
• Learning/adoption • Locus of control • Managing expectations • Meaning
• Mediated vs non-mediated • Mental model • Modality • Motor-skill variance • Multi-
user • Non-arbitrary movements • Nuanced movements • Open vs closed systems •
Optical flow • Orientation • Paths of motion • Physical proportions
• Physical strain • Pitch/roll/yaw • Points of view • Position • Proximity • Range
of movement • Resolution • Rules • Sequence • Shape/form • Shifting context
• Similarities vs differences • Spatial relationships • Staging • Timing • Ubiquitous vs
bound • Understanding movement • Variations in lighting…

Well, there is a lot of potential good that can come
from this space. I am imagining environments
that are active, but not overactive.
Environments that are purposed to enhance
activities, conversations, collaboration, and play.

Potential application:
Whole Body Education—bringing content
to life through physical interaction
(kinesthetic learning) and multi-sensory
exploration.
Keeping kids engaged and fostering abstract thinking
(not to mention what this can do for childhood obesity)

The treatment of Autism
and Attention Deﬁcit Disorder.

Increased eﬃciency and safety during
medical procedures (Procedure Theater).

And of course…
Better games, and more engaging
performance & art!

Where to begin?
We’ll approach this space like we have each
prior evolution of technology that our practice
has had to deal with—learning through
doing, through experience.
We’ll just dive-in, explore, make mistakes.
We’ll adapt.

I want to turn your attention to an
active environment that explores:
• Human body as an interface with technology
• Movement…predominantly shape and space
• The challenges when interacting with technology in this new way
• To deﬁne Interaction Design with respect to physical environments
• To generate dialogue

Key aspects of exploration for this project…
2D vs 3D • Acceptance • Active vs passive • Affordance • Architecture/layout
Authentication • Blob vs human • Boundaries • Cognitive load • Competitive
vs collaborative • Content orientation • Context • Culture • Discrete vs continuous
Duration • Enacting • Ergonomics • Feedback • Frame of reference • Habitual
vs triggered • Human factors • Input blindness • Intent • Interference • Latency
• Learning/adoption • Locus of control • Managing expectations • Meaning
• Mediated vs non-mediated • Mental model • Modality • Motor-skill variance • Multi-
user • Non-arbitrary movements • Nuanced movements • Open vs closed systems •
Optical flow • Orientation • Paths of motion • Physical proportions
• Physical strain • Pitch/roll/yaw • Points of view • Position • Proximity • Range
of movement • Resolution • Rules • Sequence • Shape/form • Shifting context
• Similarities vs differences • Spatial relationships • Staging • Timing • Ubiquitous vs
bound • Understanding movement • Variations in lighting…

How our system works…
>

My body as interface…
>

Audience participation =)
>

Special thanks goes to…
• Robert Wechsler, www.palindrome.de for our collaboration in the realm
of active environments
• Nand Dussault of www.formerfactory.com
• Adaptive Path www.adaptivepath.com
• Lextant www.lextant.com
• Lane Kuhlman for great conversations about tangible interfaces www.lanekulman.com
• Shirley Tobias for her editorial insights
• Suzanne El-Moursi for support at the 11th hour
• Finally, IxDA www.ixda.org for providing the framework for this type of exploration

Environments the Future of Interaction Design

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