One of the principles of interactivity that I'm just finished up in my theses (which uses play theory as a powerful approach to interaction design) is "Delivering the Promise". The first principle is "The Invitation to Play.
Almost all jarring interactive experiences come from essentially thinking you are playing in one environment and set of rules and finding out that the developer/designer/company are actually using a different set. This can be quite subtle sometimes, but sometimes it is huge. It's like going to a party in fancy dress only to find out everyone is in chic suits. The reason I use play as the lens through which to approach interaction design is because much of it is pre-verbal and thus "feels" instinctual and intuitive. But play is also based on a set of explicit and implicit rules that guide behaviour. It's impossible to play without some rules and many of them are unspoken. It's not possible to practice any design %u2013 and not really possible to live in the world - without influencing behaviour. At their essence, interactions are conversations and conversations are always about trying to influence the other person. This can either be trying to put an image in their mind so that you can explain what you are thinking to them or it can be more insidious and be about you trying to force them to do something against their will. Interfaces can "control" behaviour by the nature of their affordances and rules (think of those lines painted on the ground at immigration to force people to keep a distance). Of course, someone can usually just stop using the thing or break the rules, so "influencing" is a better way to think about it. Neither controlling nor influencing is ethically problematic in an of itself. The Poka Yoke principle usually involves controlling behaviour to prevent accidents or damage, which is the ethically correct thing to do. It is always in the application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41860 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
