[IxDA Discuss] Scale of time perception

[David Heller]

HI Marc,

I love that reference. My background is in anthropology and specifically the
area known as "culture and personality" where psychology and anthropology
converge, so your example is quite excellent b/c it talks about how personal
frames of reference are embedded in our linguistic constructs. Oy! I can go
on here all day and night!

Now! You said that you didn't find the initial framing that interaction
design is (and I'm paraphrasing) directly related to in whole or in part to
the design of time useful to your thinking of Interaction Design.

Now, I know you do think about the linguistic or dialog attributes of
interaction design, but I'm curious as to what other areas do you feel the
IxD manipulate in order to provide their end of the user experience
solution. (Disclaimer: on purpose I'm trying to separate IxD from UX more
generally, and that there is quite a specific discipline of IxD that works
with other disciplines in concert to create that solution. So if
presentation design is melody, would IxD be rhythm--i.e. the tempo.
Obviously that analogy doesn't quite work perfectly, but rhythm and tempo
are the "time" aspects of a musical composition and a percussionist is that
specialist of managing rhythm, but also managing tones of percussion.

I do soo that we are the ones who set the pace, and even the rhythm of
digital solutions, while the presentation layer (industrial or visual
design) set the emotional tone. Now rhythm and tempo also offer an emotional
and thus aesthetic of their own, but in a more secondary fashion than the
melody.

(oy! I hope someone can bring this back to the practical very soon! Even my
ears are starting to bleed.)

-- dave