[IxDA Discuss] Aesthetic craft (was "Elements of InteractionDesign")

[Jonas Löwgren]

Christopher wrote:

> When you write "aesthetics of use", I think of the difference in  
> "feel"
> between, say, using Flickr and using Amazon.com. The amount of  
> information
> per interface, the complexity, density, and compartmentalization of
> affordances, the difference in mental models and motivations. Is  
> this what
> you mean? Because I think this is an excellent area of inquiry and  
> thinking,
> and the word "aesthetics" I think is applicable because so much of  
> what goes
> into an interface is a kind of "usage style", independent of  
> productivity
> and efficiency metrics.

This is what I mean. Interacting with a digital product feels a  
certain way and that feeling has aesthetic elements to it. For  
example, some aesthetic assessments I have heard from users of  
everyday productivity apps are pleasant, captivating, boring and  
repetitive. (Note that aesthetics are not limited to the pleasant and  
the beautiful!)

I think a key point for our field is that the "aesthetics of use" are  
much more time-dependent than traditional notions of aesthetics in  
industrial design and graphic design, which are the two aesthetics- 
aware design disciplines that have had the most influence on  
interaction design. The following paragraphs are from a manuscript I  
am in the process of publishing, on the aesthetic quality of  
"pliability" in interaction design:

--------
[W]e have all experienced the differences between watching a  
screenshot or a photograph of a digital artifact, and trying it out  
for real. The feel of the interaction, the hints of complexity  
unfolding as different options are explored, the rhythm of the  
initiative shifting back and forth, the sense of understanding and  
insight growing over time, the sometimes almost dramaturgical  
orchestration of the interaction from conflict to resolution—all of  
this is part of the temporal and visuo-tactile properties of using  
the digital artifact. With a slight simplification, we might say that  
graphic-design and industrial-design products carry much of their  
meaning on the surface whereas interaction design products hide much  
of their meaning in virtual "contents" to emerge only in sustained  
interaction.

The point is that interaction design needs to develop its own body of  
knowledge on desirable qualities of the use experience, qualities  
that take into account the synthesis of temporal and spatial that  
characterizes digital artifacts. Another way of putting it would be  
to say that we need to start articulating the aesthetics of  
interaction design.
--------

I may be overstating the case a bit -- of course, there are time- 
dependent aesthetics in industrial design as well -- but at least I  
think there is an important distinction in there somewhere.

Jonas Löwgren

----
Arts and Communication
Malmö University, SE-205 06 Malmö, Sweden

phone +46 7039 17854
web http://webzone.k3.mah.se/k3jolo