[IxDA Discuss] Interaction design is design of time

[Ash Donaldson]

On 6/4/06 12:36 AM, "Dan Saffer" <dan at odannyboy.com> wrote:
> 1) Actual time, which objectively goes by, second by second. Or in
> digital terms, millisecond by millisecond.
> 
> 2) Experienced time, which is more flexible. Waiting in a line or
> being stuck in traffic can seem to take hours, although it may take
> minutes. A week-long holiday might seem to fly by in a day's time.
> 
> I can see experienced time by manipulated by interaction designers
> constantly: even a few milliseconds can make a big difference in how
> an application feels. Actual time, well, I'll leave that to Einstein
> to manipulate.

Dan, 

I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly.

If nothing else, read the Anthropologist Edward T Hall's "Dance of Life".
It looks at the different dimensions of time, of which you have proposed 2
here.  Too often we think of Newtonian time (sequential, linear, discreet
seconds), instead of how that time is perceived.

In many of his papers and his book, "Flow", Csikszentmihalyi further
explored the 'loss of time' during engaging experiences.

The perception and management of time is something that has been explored
quite thoroughly in human factors - so anyone interested could look at the
literature, especially the works in engagement, telepresence, crew resource
management, operational performance, domestic technology, etc...

Cheers,

Ash Donaldson
Senior Experience Architect 
M 0414 55 9996 

www.different.com.au     T +61 2 9908 1077 F +61 2 9908 3443