pixels on a screen can only engage us visually, and in most
instances should avoid invoking additional senses they can’t
deliver on. But Interaction Design goes beyond the interface to
encompass all the moments of interaction that a person has with
a system over time.
This is why Interaction Designers tend to think of their work in
terms of “flows,” focusing equally or more on the connections
between states, the various inputs and outputs that are possible
at that moment. This focus on the in-between makes time itself a
kind of design material. It is not so much that Interaction
Designers are manipulating a user’s sense of time, though
sometimes elements like progress bars do try to ease waiting,
but that they are using this fourth dimension as a connective
platform to combine information, choices, and responses.^28 Time
is a kind of stage from which to orchestrate sensorial
engagement into a set of dynamic movements.
On a computer, or mobile device, this orchestration of interaction
possibilities and system feedback can utilize animation,
translucency, figure/ground relationships, color, sound, and
standardized notifications to facilitate engagement with the
system over time. But how does this work when we move
beyond the screen? When a physical product is embedded with
computation and network connectivity it transforms from an
object to a system. A traditional product has discrete and
predictable interactions that take place within a defined session,
but once it becomes a system the sequence of interactions are
less predictable and take place over a longer period of time.
Consider the previously discussed Beosystem 2500, where the
opening and closing of the stereo’s doors represents three clear
states to form a beginning, middle, and end to the experience.
Compare that to the range of possible states and behaviors that
(^28) "Defining Interaction Design." LukeW. Accessed January 25, 2015.
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?327.