Overview

We live at the time where the world around us becomes more and more “digitally” interactive. Not only on the screens that we all have in our pockets, but in physical environments as well. Technologies evolved so fast and became more and more accessible to mass markets and regular users. At some point in our lifetime, a little over 30 years ago, not everyone had the ability to get money out of an ATM, instead you had to physically go into the bank. You couldn't track your weekend run without sophisticated technology, and when you traveled you had a physical paper map in your pocket that didn’t tell you exactly where you were, no matter how many times you asked. And even in more recent times you couldn't book a flight without visiting a travel agency or find a long lost high school friend that you haven’t seen in a long time. Nobody heard of AirBnB, Uber, Amazon or a car that can be more aware of a situation on the road and even make certain decisions. In the same way that industrial design has changed our everyday lives whether we are at home, at work or commuting, interaction design is shaping our lives today.

There’s more to living than utilitarian needs and the functions which satisfy us as users. As technology continues to shape our lives, we’re interested not only in what this technology can do for us, but also in how it makes us feel. Does it enrich, by however little, our day-to-day lives, or just simply solve some annoying obstacles that we face from time to time. Good design is done with usability, utility and communicative qualities, but as designers we should also think about satisfaction and designing for sociability. The technologies and systems we design with well-thought-out interactions are just tools, they can both divide and isolate us but they can also connect us in a positive way.

In the “Applying Interactivity” class we will look at regular everyday objects and ideate together on how to enrich them by making them interactive. We will analyse what type of interactivity can bring joy and connect people, what type of interactivity can be purely utilitarian and almost invisible and what type can potentially be harmful and reflect negatively on people.