What is interaction? Week 1

How would you define physical interaction?

I consider physical interaction is one way through the design of the physical dimension, such as shape, texture, size, enable one object to be interacted with human beings. And this interaction could happen on listening, smelling, feeling and watching, when users have any contact with the object directly or indirectly.

So basically, physical interaction is based on the fact of physical principle, then through the principle or physical phenomenon to make one object interact with human beings and leading to the upcoming human behavior. And as Chris Crawford mentioned in his book The Art of Interactive Design, the most commonly experienced form of interactivity is conversation. The word conversation is accurately describe the process that is happened when the physical interaction happened on human being and designed object.

What makes for good physical interaction?

A good physical interaction comes from the practical consideration from the designers on an interactive object. Good physical interaction should be equipped with ergonomic design, suitable texture, right proportion and pleased user experiences.

On the other hand, a good physical interaction not only limited on the using experience and bring convenient to human behavior, but also can evoke human beings though and make the nonlinear of human’s thinking and reaction more humanistic, not mechanized.

Are there works from others that you would say are good examples of digital technology that are not interactive?

The old vehicle navigation system. They are not accurate and don't have any interaction with human behavior. It's more like an individual machine which don't have any conversation with the user.