interaction design: a response

rhetoric of video games – ian bogost

animal crossing analogy to late stage capitalist – the more material possessions he took on, the more space he needed, and the more debt he had to assume to provide that space – culture that tells us we require specific things

the player experiences the way his debt makes his bankers wealthy…in real life we don’t see this. this is a very interesting point to me. THE VISIBILITY OF INJUSTICE MATTERS. things that happen behind the scenes will not be spoken about, far harder to hold accountability for. we have to understand that systems have been constructed to specifically to obstruct us from certain information, in order to maintain the status quo…median person has no idea how banking system is set-up. same with insurance systems. oil companies etc. if they did, a revolution would probably happen. they are able to exist through obfuscation of truth, obscuring of reality and treatment of truth to fit their ideals

inveterate longing – “ive always wanted a lamp” – pure anti-consumerism, still expresses desire but in a health way which is anti the capitalist ideals. i like this concept

player participates in full consumer regimen: pays off debt, buys and sells goods…

“tom nook is a condensation of the corporate bourgeoisie.”

although i have never played animal crossing before, it was really interesting to read all the larger broader philosophical insights. ive never considered it in this way, viewed the game as fun and playful, as the author calls out

video games are not just stages that facilitate cultural, social or political practices, they are also stages that facilitate cultural, social or political practices → wow!

read games as deliberate expression of particular perspectives

educators can help students imagine and design games based on their own opinions of the world – don’t have to follow the norms, can create the norms. I like this perspective and exciting possibility and opportunity

“play is free space of movement within a more rigid structure” → when children they constantly renegotiate their relationship with a possibility space

i really loved the mention of poetry personally as well, as someone who loves to read and write poetry. in more traditional media like poetry, the possibility space refers to the expressive opportunities afforded by rules of composition, form or genre. i have been writing a lot of haikus lately, so that was fun to draw the analogy and view video games as a form of art too. i have always valued the introduction of rules as a form of new creativity, the imposition of restriction constrains poetic authorship but gives space for new work. “to write haiku means exploring configurations of language that intersect with these rules of composition”

“playing video games is a kind of literacy. not the literacy that helps us read books or write term papers, but the kind of literacy that helps us make or critique the systems we live in. any social or cultural practice can be understood as a set of processes, and our understanding of each of them can be taught, supported or challenged through video games” – anything that helps us understand the world is important. books art etc, they all illuminate a perspective of the creator in some way. so of course video games are the same. i think for some reason the technical/digital flavour of video games separated the concepts in my mind, but now that i think about it, they flow very naturally together

luring of game development as entry point into computer science – wasn’t exactly video game, but my introduction class to computer science made games to make it more exciting, i liked this aspect. but author makes good point that such approaches risk reinforcing that play is equivalent to leisure, and that video games are intended to produce fun and distraction rather than critical response

“when kids program, just as when they write, they can learn to make their own claims about the world in form of processes….” → writing is a form of distilling your worldview, understanding yourself, as is any form of creation. you are forced to articulate precisely what you think (if you’re writing well) and this is the same with design. forced to think about what you want to communicate.

not mere trifles created to distract or amuse. but need to be intentionally created.. struck by how similar this perspective is to the way i view art. video games have the power to make arguments, to persuade, to express ideas. they are not automatically rich, sophisticated statements about the world us. concept of procedural

Introduction: a cultural approach to interaction design

“we are in sum incomplete or unfinished animals or complete or finish ourselves through culture” – clifford geertz (1973) – save dis quote

• common set of principles and a common design vocabulary to aid in the collective design process
• human computer interaction, or interaction design → written from a humanistic prespective
• design of digital objects is a cultural prective like writing a book or making a film → never considered it from this perspective, because i usually view digital products as separate from other kinds of art, but of course all forms of design with intention are kinds of art. art is extremely wide encompassing word, so it makes sense that this is also art, and you can see a designer’s character through any form of expression.
• culture is the name we give to the infinite web of meaning that human beings have been weaving for millenia → really beautiful poetic sentence. I like this so wanted to save it.
• we participate in culture when we imitate one another’s behaviour’s,a dopt common values and practices, share symbolic codes like language, music or the latest dress style.
• to see any artifact as part of culture is to understand how it becomes meaningful through the social acitvities, thoughts and actions of the people who engage with it
• humaists understand that that cultural objects and practices can be meaningful in many ways.
• described artifact as any human made object —- this is an interesting definition that i had never considered and i want to remember this fo rour work with museums, because i think i often get bored with the concept of museums and this makes the concept more exciting and interesting and engaging. bringing the humans into tech because they are infinitely related)
• digital artifacts pervade our lives, and the design decisions that shape them affect the way we think, act, understand the world and communicate with one another → different to other kind of art, makes distinction clear. very tangibly affects peoples lives, as technology becomes more advanced. this is the importance of inclusive tech and having persepctives represented such as women and minorities when making decisions at higher level.
• making too many new things too quickly with result users of devices often feel overwhelmed and unable to take appropriate advantage of opportunities they give us
• designers are often engaged in a process of refnement – what i see intelligence and art as more broadly.
• in digital sphere we often have had to invent the building blocks of design while we are designing the specific artifact
• intuition is by far the most abused word in digital design – more broadly speaking, this makes me think of how all our norms are based on our socialisation and not actually norms, all arbitrary decisions, such as us driving on the left in certain countries. a lot of decision desicisons, and decisions more braodly, are simply made out of convenience.
• a better design value than intuitive is transparent….should let us direct our attention to the task itself
• definition of interface: convenient but imprecise term for the outward control and feedback apparatus for interactive devices

chapter 1: what is interaction design

design and usability principles: VISIBILITY. FEEDBACK. CONSTRAINTS (think haiku). MAPPING. CONSISTENCY. AFFORDANCE.

heuristics: emphasises that something has to be done with them when they are applied to a given problem.

thinking of ideo, the company (dream internship) → relates to design thinking. these apply to all contexts of problem solving. think political problems, social, community, public policy, relationships, etc. design thinking frameworks extend…

simplicity is certainly an important design principle (think: Pierre’s presentation)! however certain amount of graphics can make a site aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to use

design principles are derived from mix of theory-based knowledge, experience and common sense