Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Toying with Time: Considering

Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts

Sus Lundgren Chalmers University of Technology

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Today I will present two things…

A design method that helps us

consider time and temporality in interaction design…

…and the necessary framework

providing us with concepts for discussing time and temporality in interactive artifacts…

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Time in interaction design

Focus I: Efficency – Minimize waiting times, time-efficiency, visualizing time…

Focus II: Time and temporality as component – Lim et al (2007): Pace, Speed, Rhythm… : gestalt attributes

– Löwgren (2009): Rhythm as an aesthetic interaction quality

Focus III: Use over time – Huang and Stolterman (2011, 2012): Visualizations

– Karapanos et al (2009): User experience over time

Focus IV: Time as a dramaturgical instrument – Bolter & Gromala, Laurel, Manovich and Murray

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Time in interaction design

Focus I: Efficency – Minimize waiting times, time-efficiency, visualizing time…

Focus II: Time and temporality as component – Lim et al (2007): Pace, Speed, Rhythm… : gestalt attributes

– Löwgren (2009): Rhythm as an aesthetic interaction quality

Focus III: Use over time – Huang and Stolterman (2011, 2012): Visualizations

– Karapanos et al (2009): User experience over time

Focus IV: Time as a dramaturgical instrument – Bolter & Gromala, Laurel, Manovich and Murray

But how do we actually design it???

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Time in interaction design: guidelines

Redström & Hallnäs: Slow Technology – Design programme for ”putting back time”, promoting

reflection

Benford and Giannachi (2008): Temporal trajectories in interactive narratives

– Story time, clock time, plot time, interaction time

Björk & Holopainen (2005): Time in games – Real Time Games, Asynchronous Games, Synchronous

Games, Timing, Rhythm-based Actions…

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Time in interaction design: guidelines

Redström & Hallnäs: Slow Technology – Design programme for ”putting back time”, promoting

reflection

Benford and Giannachi (2008): Temporal trajectories in interactive narratives

– Story time, clock time, plot time, interaction time

Björk & Holopainen (2005): Time in games – Real Time Games, Asynchronous/Synchronous Games,

Timing, Rhythm-based Actions…

Excellent…

…but limited

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Starting point: Narratives

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

We loved I lied He cried

Narratives have a temporal order,

which we can experiment with…

He cried I lied We loved

He loved I cried

I loved

He lied

We cried

Can we do the same

in interaction design?

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Lundgren, S. and Hultberg, T. (2009)

Time, temporality, and interaction Interactions, Volume 16 issue 4, July + August 2009, ACM Press

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Since then:

Workshops – four iterations

– 80 students in total

Larger projects

Inspiration Redström (2001): Time as a starting point for design!

Manovich (2006): seeing interactions as aesthetic events, unfolding over time.

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Framework: Temporal Themes

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Method: Toying with Time

1) Analysis – Select an initial artifact.

– Find events: Actions (what users do, e.g. press “Send”) and/or Elements (the things users manipulate, e.g. emails in an inbox)

– Analyze which themes are present

2) Toying with time – Add, change, remove themes

3) Refining ideas – Consider level of control and visualization of temporal

behaviors

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Live Time

TV: Watching a live sports event:

Games: Meeting up for a raid in World of Warcraft or any other MMORPG

IxD: Skype, co-editing GoogleDoc

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Example: Temporal Notepad

What: A word processor with added Live Time

Events: Sentences Temporality was added using color. Depending on the time of day when it is written, the text gets a certain color, changing from bright green to purple over a day. Also, text darkens as it gets older. In this way, the text gets a distinct look. It is easier to scroll and find newly written text. Users can also shut off the color effects.

Users had no control over temporal effects, but they were not disturbed either. Supported navigation.

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Real Time

TV: Watching a rerun of a sport event, or the TV-series ”24”

Games: Racing games, any game with a time-pressure

IxD: Real-time simulations

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Example: Horror Chess

What: A chess-game with re-themed pieces: vampires, weverwolves, monks, hunters etc.

– The pieces are affected by night vs day

– Every five Real Time minutes, the game state changes from night to day or vice versa (original but impractical idea: to do this in Live Time)

– Players also have a certain amount of Real Time minutes to spend on moves

The intertwined uses of Real Time enhance the level of tactics in the game; users have to adopt.

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Unbroken Flow

Games: Games where you can manipulate time, e.g. ”bullet time” in Max Payne, or stopping time /speeding up time in sim-games

IxD: Music- or movie players, history in Photoshop

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Example: Temporal Paint

Perspective

What: A drawing application where lines are events affected by an Unbroken Flow; they slowly move towards the center of the canvas.

User have to adopt to, and utilize this effect

http://demo.iconara.net/ temporal-paint/

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Sequential Events

Any book, TV-series or movie where story is straightforward, but unimportant events skipped, e.g. biographies

IxD: Image stream where some images have been deleted

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Disordered Events

Any book, TV-series or movie that utilizes memories, or for some other reeason shuffles the order of events (”Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, ”Memento”)

IxD: Any software that allows for mixing, editing, deleting, adding

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Example: Skype Fridge Magnets

What: A Fragmented Time-mode for Skype. It records and extracts singular words (events) from user’s Skype-conversations with others. These audio clips are then being represented as a limited set of digital fridge magnets.

Users have full control over the words created, and can toy with them, creating unlikely messages from a certain person.

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Juxtaposed Events

Any TV-series or film where events are shown in parallell, on split screens e.g Time Code, ”24” (sometimes)

IxD: Layers in Photoshop

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Examples: The JuxtaCam

What: A camera app juxtaposing images (events), changing the theme from Sequential Events to Juxtaposed Events

Events: Images

There are several strategies to utilize this effect; users are in semi-control over the content.

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Example: Temporal Art

What: A drawing program where each dinstinct area (event) can be given a temporal behavior, changing the theme from Juxtaposed Events (or static) to Unbroken Flow.

Users have seemingly full control over the now animated artwork

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Branched Versions

Any TV-series, stories or films featuring time travel or alternate realities

Games: Any games with levels that can be replayed

IxD: Any software allowing different versions of the same file

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Method: Toying with Time

1) Analysis – Select an initial artifact.

– Find events: Actions (what users do, e.g. press “Send”) and/or Elements (the things users manipulate, e.g. emails in an inbox)

– Analyze which themes are present

2) Toying with time – Add, change, remove themes

3) Refining ideas – Consider level of control and visualization of temporal

behaviors

Issues: Blurry borders Finding events Just decide!

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Control, visibility and goal

When changing the dominant temporal theme(s) in an artifact, we have found two interrelated issues:

– Are the effects of the temporal theme ”visible” or comprehensible?

– How much control do users have over temporality in relation to their end goal?

Users need either: – To understand the temporality so that they can adapt to the

theme – even utilize it – to attain their goal

– To have control

– Both

Toying with Time: Considering Temporal Themes in Interactive Artifacts sus.lundgren@chalmers.se

Toying with Time: Anywhere, everywhere?

The main argument in this paper is not that all

artifacts should have an apparent temporality, but

that there may be a benefit in actually questioning the temporality – or lack thereof

– in one’s design. Adding, removing and/or altering

temporal themes is a powerful ideation method.

Questions? :)