Experience Design » ACCD

Refuting the screen

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:35:58 +0000

Paper Value

A Norwegian researcher, Anne Mangen, wrote an interesting paper in the Journal of Research in Reading, asserting that screen reading and page reading are radically different. “The feeling of literally being in touch with the text is lost when your actions – clicking with the mouse, pointing on touch screens, or scrolling with keys or on touch pads – take place at a distance from the digital text, which is, somehow, somewhere inside the computer, the e-book, or the mobile phone,’’ Mangen writes.

Her conclusion: “Materiality matters. . . . One main effect of the intangibility of the digital text is that of making us read in a shallower, less focused way.’’

http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2009/06/19/paper_vs_computer_screen/

The materiality of paper takes on a extended meaning due to its experience. The knowledge that is contained with in a book is not singularly wrapped up in the words on the page. From psychology class in college at Colorado State University, I remember my teacher telling us that our brains formulate knowledge and recall through repeating similar experiences under which that knowledge was learned. For example if you are juiced up on coffee while you study for a test you should be juiced up on coffee during the test because the brain associates the experience of the learning along with the recall of that information. Similarly you might be able to recall a story in a book more vividly when the same circumstances are repeated. The engagement of content influences our learning and subsequent recall. Therefore the reading of a book is learned through the experience of the pages. Knowledge that is engaged in the physicality of pages is then linked with that experience. Pages then become essential to formulation of knowledge within a book.

Media critic William Powers wrote a defense of physical bound literature in his essay, “Hamlet’s BlackBerry: Why Paper Is Eternal,’’ Mr. Paper – he not dead, Powers wrote: “There are cognitive, cultural, and social dimensions to the human-paper dynamic that come into play every time any kind of paper, from a tiny Post-It note to a groaning Sunday newspaper, is used to convey, retrieve, or store information.’’

Paper will never die, Powers concluded: “It becomes a still point, an anchor for the consciousness. It’s a trick the digital medium hasn’t mastered – not yet.’’

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3562724/Hamlets-Blackberry-Why-Paper-Is-Eternal

The digital medium has been attempting to replace the piece of paper and it has been around the corner in terms of technology since technology began. Now what if the digital medium and the physical medium where equal? When paper and computer work together seamlessly then paper takes on an added functionality with the computer.

The digital textbook?

With students doing so much of their reading assignments through the screen instead of on book or paper formats, it’s important for educators to determine how the shift is altering their habits and learning. The research is just beginning, but it’s getting deeper, an article in the Journal of Research in Reading (2008, pp. 404-419) by Anne Mangen, “Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion.” Mangen notes the growing sub-field of screen reading studies, but finds that the “intangibility and volatility of the digital text” remain under-examined. She focuses first, then, on the material nature of digital and non-digital reading experiences. “Unlike print texts,” she writes, “digital texts are ontologically intangible and detached from the physical and mechanical dimension of their material support, namely, their computer or e-book (or other devices, such as the PDA, the iPod or the mobile phone” (405).

This is important, she argues, because “materiality matters.” The reading experience includes manual activities and haptic perceptions (what the skin and muscles and joints register), and so as activities and perceptions of that kind are changed from one kind of reading experience to another because of the object, the reading experience, too, will change.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Screen-ReadingPrint-Re/8551/

So if materiality matters in the delivery of content especially reading material, then it would be arguable that to remove the materiality of paper from the reading experience would fundamentally alter that exchange. Screen engagement has become a reality in modern times but the advantages of the screen have forced its usability right next to the book forcing them to go head to head. I have chosen to regard these experience as different and explore a way to bridge the difference between experiences. As use of screen based devices increases, the need for physical interaction with objects like books will become essential in the recombination of content delivery. I believe users should not have to exchange one experience for the other in order to engage in the content the way they would like. Many things in this world have multiple experiences and with the linking physical and digital is opens up a strategy and platform for making printed content and digital content work together.

John Locke said, “reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” Thinking can be greatly enhanced through digital means of networking so making paper and computer work together will greatly enhance the opportunity to make reading our again.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Reading Future

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:41:28 +0000

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/09/technolog/tablet_ebooks_media.fortune/index.htm

The Fortune Article ” the Future of Reading” poses some relevant questions?

Question 1: Will anyone be willing to pay for content delivered to a tablet when they can get information for free on the web?

Question 2: But aren’t tablets just a better way to browse the web?

Question 3: Reading? Reading is dead.

Question 4: How will tablet-based ads work better than the web?

Question 5: Can traditional publishing companies reorganize and move fast enough to embrace and serve new platforms?

these questions all poise the options as if the book and the screen are binary. Print media is looked as a being obsolete due to the advancement of screen based tablets. Granted the pervasive nature of digitized content will have a large impact on printed materials. This effect has already stated to take its toll when it comes to newspaper media. How ever like Red heads in America, their kind is not going to dissappear. Book and printed material might start to diminish but then is begs the question just as the question poised above, what is a book when it can exist on a screen?

This question requires going back to the nuanced history of printed material in bound and sequenced form and taking note of its ability to become ubiquitous and why? The screen and the book will never be the same thing as one is fundamentally material based ie pages and ink while the other is silicon driven ie the screen. Each of these forms is a media delivery device and technology. (Although many might not consider books a technology when compared to a computer) Each media format has its own place, use factors, acceptance, penetration into society, and distribution. Each is equally unique to its time and space and each is locked in a continuum that links the two in weave of consumerism, knowledge, and social contextuality. The screen experience would not be capable without the book, and the book would not be producible in contemporary terms with out a computer.

I have asked my self through out this process, why do we consider physical books and digital book and being so different. Why when you buy a physical book do you not receive the digital part also? It seems to me that if you could link the physical with the digital it would allow each of there forms strenghts and affordances to work together rather then in opposition. The simplicity of sequential pages bound together has a unique experience that can only be mimicked by the screen and the social and networking capabilities of a screen require the dynamics of that different system. What are the implications of making print and screen work together, well hopefully it will lead to more productive use of materials and a platform for a larger connection of information directed at specific context.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Touch Interaction

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:04:04 +0000

Engaging users with an interaction is a difficult process. I am attempting to engage users in natural mapped interactions through iconography the associats a particular action of touch. Natural mapping is a term for the proper and natural arrangements for the relations between controls and their movements to the outcome from such action into the world. Like that of a door knob or a book.The real function of natural mappings is to reduce the need for any information from a user’s memory to perform a task. This term is widely used in the areas of human-computer interaction (HCI) and interactive design discussed in Donald Norman’s book : The design of Everyday Things.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Marginalia – An Analysis

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:19:52 +0000

In the process of looking at printing material and contemplating the possibility of the end of print where a screen replaces all print material, I was struck by something that to date has not really been handled by screen based technologies. The Margin! Margins in technology since are locations for buttons, actions, and tools associated with the particular application that is being used.

Since the margin has excuse my pun been marginalized by technologies, I decided to do a number of explorations in to the potential of the margin when given a computational aspect and affordance. In order for me to get a good grasp on the design nature of margins with in printed matter, I have taken 9 of my books ranging from design porn to technical textbooks, I have done an analysis of the margin and implied usage and created a piece of relevant print material describing each examples margin design and use as associated with grid, layout and space.

The idea revolves around the notion of marginalia and the use of margins with in written content in order to apply notes, reflections and sketches.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Circuit Dipper

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:01:28 +0000

Now the conductive inks that I have made work, I have started to dive into breaking the perception of what a circuit should be and should look like. With the addition of user interaction, turning a light on becomes more interesting and engaging. The earlier experiments are mostly a process of seeing and thinking about paper differently, this is a experiment into giving paper an added interaction through the conductive ink and the simple switches. The form of the conductive lines are skewing the efficiency ideas associated with circuit board design, and the interaction allows the user to piece together the shapes of both the form and of the shape the lights make.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Conductive Form

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:40:55 +0000

Now that I have gotten an ink that can conduct an current over a relatively decient distance, I have started to play with the notion of what can a circuit look like. Can it be anything you want it to be as long as there is a positive and negative in and out. Can the form start to speak about it functionality, can the forms be unique and artistic rather than function based. Most circuitry disappears and becomes invisible. To most who use electronics and understanding of the work, skill, craft, and planning that has gone into a majority of the things they operate on a daily basis is pretty minimal. Electronics work and we rarely pay attention until they stop working. An interest in involving conductive ink is to challenge the expectation and visibility of otherwise invisible things. The mixed media piece of conductive ink, copper tape on paper is an experiment into changing and evaluating the expectations of electronic conductivity and use.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Conductive Art

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:59:19 +0000

The experimentation process with making my own conductive ink has been a process of thinking about what paper + ink could be when given conductive attributes? The power of giving ink conductivity to me is starting to be interesting when I start to use in as a mode of communicating its function. The ephemeral nature of paper and printed object start to change and become more interesting when digital affordances of awareness, networking, communication and delivery system come into play.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Ideas : RFid hack

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:07:57 +0000

RFid tags and reader are becoming more and more accessible in consumer markets. The idea is to do some experiments in giving paper and printed artifacts a computational affordance through the RFid’s. As technology becomes more embedded into our systems, the ability of that technology to engage our role or connection to the content changes. The role of the print medium can potentially be extended through the use of RFid tags and readers. If tags are embedded into the print narrative and incorporate the unique afforance of the RFid then a user can engage in that piece of print media from a new and unique perspective.

The concept is going to explore what paper can become when the technology of RFid and the interactive elements of passive, active, interactive, and networked objects engage the user in a potentially more meaningful, fun, and mystical experience that allows the printed artifact to take on a different role then in opposition to the screen and dynamic content generators.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Ideas: Layering Screenprint

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:04:52 +0000

Screen printing has a unique affordance involved in the making process, since ink is pulled through a screen rather that placed or sprayed by a machine printer, the maker can decided to layer aspects of the composition. Depending on the opacity of the ink used during the printing process, the blending of layers allows for designers/printmakers to utilize the ability to make a 2 color composition a 3 color through blending and overlapping.

In my experiments with conductive ink for screen printing, it made me think of the possibility of having the conductive aspect of my experiments only work when they are layered or overlapping? could my inks when layered have a chemical connection that would render it conductive.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

Context: Bounding Areas

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:52:57 +0000

The thesis direction that I am exploring builds on the ideas of The New Ecology of Things (http://www.newecologyofthings.net/). The methodology is attempting to pull from a number of different influences that over the next year will shape and inform the ideas that are being explored.

3 Main bounding areas have immerged

1.) Tangible Systems : the notion that products, artifacts, areas of attachment to media and content are enhanced by the physicality and tactility of the item.

2. ) Narrative / Storytelling : Design has a rich background in conveying messages in narrative form. As interaction and multimedia becomes involved narrative mediums, the ability of an artist / designer to tell a story about the content becomes more relevant in a dynamic world of branding and systems design.

3.) Circuits : The ability to build and make functioning technologies that push at the ideas of interaction with tangible, physical connections to data, content, and design.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook