Digital Media Design: Design for Interaction
Our latest brief we have been set is requiring us to design and develop an interactive product. This could be an interactive website, game, interactive art piece, a non linear storyline or an installment. The aim is to to explore and create something original that creates interaction with the user.
First I began to look at the various ways we can interact with technology.
- Touch Screen
- Use of Narrative
- Gaming
- Motion Sensors
- Haptics (rumble features in controllers)
- Simulators
- Forums and chats (msn, yahoo messenger etc)
Interactivity is more apparent in different mediums in others for example there is interaction when looking at an art piece, but this may not seem too obvious. When playing games immediately interaction comes to mind as it engages the user.
What is interactivity?
Interactivity is a common thing, we interact with people and objects everyday, whether its simply conversing with someone to using a computer. The area of interactivity im going to explore is person to computer interaction, a dialog that occurs between a human being and a computer program. There are many ways now we communicate and control computers as we use computers so frequently, whether is checking email or buying train tickets, using computers has become very important. A good example why human to computer interaction has also become more apprarent is the iPhone. We would originally just use phones for its one purpose, to communicate to another over long distance, however now the mobile phone has many more functions. The iPhone can use internet, take pictures, run games, play music, video etc. Years ago we would use a different device to do each of these things now it is all available on one single device.
Also more recently consoles have taken a different turn, originally consoles would be controlled by using buttons however now all consoles are trying new and different way to make a more fun and innovative way of playing games. Nintendo Wii was the first big console to rely totally on motion sensor control, older consoles such as the snes did try to use different methods of controlling however wasn't very popular due to bad functionality. Only recently have the other consoles begun to implement new interactive ways of playing as the Nintendo Wii did so well in the gaming market. Playstation 3 released a new Eyetoy and the Xbox 360 will soon be releasing Natal a full body motion sensor.
Xbox 360 Natal: Milo
PS3 Eyepet
EyePet interaction from antjeverena on Vimeo.
The new Project Natal is really pushing the technology forward with the all-sensor control, this will enable people to immediately play without having to learn controls.
Arduino Boards
"Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or it can be connected to a host computer."
Arduino Boards have become very popular when creating new and interactive projects, the can enable to code and have control for motion sensors, lights, movement etc. I found a website that showed some of the top examples of using a Arduino Board and some of the results are truly spectacular.
http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-40-arduino-projects-of-the-web/
Here are some examples I liked:
Both of these are run by using Arduino boards to process the information, by using the program "Processing" you can function many different things. The first one, "The Lazer Harp" i really liked changing the way you interact and play with an instrument. By replacing the instrument with lights you can wave through creating sounds makes a fresh and innovative idea that could be developed further and possibly change the way we play music, there are plenty of music controllers but this one looks fun to play with and also not too complex, it's immediately obvious how you play with it.
The second idea, "Etch-a-Sketch" clock also caught my eye. The arduino board reads the time and feeds the information to the Etch-a-Sketch, it then draws out the time.
Touch Screens
"A touchscreen is a display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touch or contact to the display of the device by a finger or hand."
Touchscreens have been around for a while its only till recently they became more public in the 90's. They were first developed by a company called "Elographics" in the 70's and became popular in the 90's. We've been using them ever since at train stations, self service checkouts in supermarkets. The games company Nintendo decided to make a touch screen based handheld that is controlled by using a stylus. This handheld proved to be very popular as people crave for new forms of interaction.
Here's an example of where touch screen control is going. This product is a touch screen table being developed by Microsoft, it works very much like the iPhone though with some additional features. The touch screen table has a feature where you can place a mobile phone or camera onto the table and it automatically connects with the device displaying pictures and various other details, a very simple and efficient way of file transfer. The table could also be used commercially, for a restaurant as it has features such as bill payment, and menus which would bring on a whole new take of eating out.
Interactive Narrative
Narrative can also be a form of interaction and has been around for a while. Books I read years ago as a child had interactive narrative, the Goosebump series for example, the story would be split up randomly on different pages, as you progress through the story you can make decisions this would lead to a different page and each route you take there is a different ending for each route. However when talking about digital artefacts and games Interactive Narrative is still new and upcoming. A games company called Quantic Dream's is developing a game that is creating a lot of hype. The game is called Heavy Rain and has been described as an "interactive drama" the game plays out like any other game however depending on what decisions you make the story and ending outcome differs. This is new to the gaming scene as most games play out as a strict set linear path.
Heavy Rain
This is just one of the character's storylines, if this character dies the story continues, this is also new in gaming.