Post on 15-Jan-2016
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Sus Lundgren 2013
Toying with Time
Time and temporality in interaction design.
Sus Lundgren 2013
How humans percieve time
Biological Time– ”in life”
– in monthly cycles (not only women)
– 25-hour days
Percieved Time– Fun = time passes faster (mind measures change)
– Flow; level of creative concentration = change
– I year = 1/5 of the life of a five-year old, but 1/50 of the life of a fifty-year old…
– Just-noteable-difference; the longer the time, the bigger a difference can be without us noticing
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporality
Temporal: Of or relating to time as opposed to eternity; of or relating to time as distinguished from space; of or relating to the sequence of time or to a particular time
– Merriam-Webster online
Temporal: Temporal measurements, of time, time-related.
– The Oxford Pocket Thesaurus of Current English
Temporality: The condition of being bounded in time (of being temporal.)
– Wiktionary
Sus Lundgren 2013
How humans percieve time
Cultural Notions of Time– Westerners: time is linear and change is constant (or
changing at the same rate, e.g. progress
– Westerners: some things are cyclic, e.g. years (but one person’s life is linear)
– Asians: time is cyclical. Everyting changes; good can turn into bad and vice versa.
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporality in Design
Design-by-drawing, the traditional design method, depends almost completely upon accurate modeling of dimensions in space. The time dimension, if we may call it that, is left to take care of itself. [...] To design in time is, more so than when designing objects, to design life itself, the very form of existence, and surely calls for a gentler touch than can be felt in the insensitive forms of out production-systems, legal systems, timetables, schedules, distribution-systems, etc.
– John Chris Jones in “Design methods”,
1992, 2nd edition (p. xxxii)
Sus Lundgren 2013
Time: an unexplored issue
“Digital artifacts are every bit as temporal as they are spatial. In order to perceive the whole, or the dynamic gestalt, of a digital artifact we need to experience it as a process, which is to say that we need to try it. The gestalt of a digital artifact emerges in the interaction with the user over time.“
– Jonas Löwgren and Erik Stolterman in “Thoughtful Interaction Design” (2004 p. 137)
Sus Lundgren 2013
Time in interaction design
Waiting and downtime (Seow)– Show how much is left
– Consistent response times ”better” than varibale ones to some extent, related to anticipation and rhythm
– Normally negative, some games are an exception
Lim et al: Pace, speed, rhythm– Interplay between user and interface
Visibility of time– Backwards in chats
– Forwards with feedforward (Djajadningrat et al)
Sus Lundgren 2013
Slow Technology
Redström: We need to use time as a starting point for design!
Redström and Hallnäs: Slow Technology– A design programme aiming to make time visible and
valuable:
“It should not be technology that is tiresome and time consuming, but technology that stretches time and slow
things down.”
Sus Lundgren 2013
Time in interaction design
Benford and Giannachi discuss time in relation to interactive narratives
– Story time (the time “in” the narrative)
– Clock time (the actual time passing)
– Plot time (timing and ordering of events
– Interaction time (when, and for how long, participants interact)
Looking at narratives and drama for inspiration has also been done by Laurel and Murray.
Sus Lundgren 2013
Time in interaction design
Löwgren: Rhythm as an ”aesthetic interaction quality”
– everything from sub-second interactions, like tapping on a keyboard, to longer cycles of use
Manovich: interactions are aesthetic events, unfolding over time
“The simple acts of opening a mobile phone or pressing its buttons [have been] turned into real micro-plays:
very short narratives complete with visual, tactile, and three-dimensional effects.”
Sus Lundgren 2013
Who gets to toy with time?
Writers do!– Prologues, epilogues, time-jumps,
memories…
Makers of movies and TV do!– All of the above plus slow motion, real
time, live time
Game designers do!– Time pressure, time travel and time-
manipulation as gameplay elements
Utilize narrative structures
Have events with natural order
Sus Lundgren 2013
Who gets to toy with time?
Writers do!– Prologues, epilogues, time-jumps,
memories…
Makers of movies and TV do!– All of the above plus slow motion, real
time, live time
Game designers do!– Time pressure, time travel and time-
manipulation as gameplay elements
Utilize narrative structures
Have events with natural order
Why
not
inte
ract
ion
desig
ners?
Sus Lundgren 2013
Toying with Time: Approach
Lundgren & Hultberg: Temporal Themes-framework (to be explained), revised
+
Redström’s notion to start with time first
+
Manovich’s view on aesthetic events
Sus Lundgren 2013
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
Sus Lundgren 2013
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
Sus Lundgren 2013
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
Sus Lundgren 2013
Sequential Events
Any book, TV-series or movie where story is straightforward, but important events skipped, e.g. biographies
IxD: Image stream where some images have been deleted
Sus Lundgren 2013
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 miving, editind, deleting, adding
Sus Lundgren 2013
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
Sus Lundgren 2013
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
Sus Lundgren 2013
How to use this in design
An example: The Temporal Music Player
Events looked at are songs (not notes or playlists)
Initial state: It can play streaming music but right now there’s no database = it does not have any funcion.
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporal MusicPlayer (TMP)
We connect our player to an empty music database. We then start uploading songs to it, which are played by the TMP. The songs form a giant playlist, which cannot be manipulated by users.
The TMP is now a radio.
The TMP contains:Live Time
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporal MusicPlayer (TMP)
Now, we add the possibility to ”jump back in time” and choose another starting point for the music stream, than just right now.
This is similar to back in the days when some of us recorded our favorite radio shows on tape…
The TMP contains:Live TimeReal Time
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporal MusicPlayer (TMP)
Now we add the possibility to pause, and to fast-forward or fast-backward songs.
The TMP is still like a casette taped radio show, but with more functions on the casette player…
The TMP contains:Live TimeReal TimeUnbroken Flow
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporal MusicPlayer (TMP)
We now add the function of skipping songs one does not like.
The TMP is now a CD-player allowing us to skip tracks
The TMP contains:Live TimeReal TimeSequential Events
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporal MusicPlayer (TMP)
We add the function to create one’s own playlists! They may add and delete songs, shuffle the order etc.
The TMP has now turned into Spotify.
The TMP contains:Live TimeReal TimeDisordered Events
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporal MusicPlayer (TMP)
We add yet another functionality: To play two songs at the same time…
The TMP has turned into a super-version of Spotify
The TMP contains:Live TimeReal TimeDisordered EventsJuxtaposed Events
Sus Lundgren 2013
Temporal MusicPlayer (TMP)
We add the function to copy a playlist, and re-edit it.
The TMP has turned into a super-version of Spotify (the metioned functionality would be really cool to have…)
The TMP contains:Live TimeReal TimeDisordered EventsJuxtaposed EventsBranched Versions
Sus Lundgren 2013
Your turn!
1) Analyze
2) Decide on what the ”events” are…1) Actions = what users do
2) Elements = things users manipulate
…and the size or scale of events
3) Add, change, remove themes
4) Pick best ideas
You have from now until 14.15 – crit/discussion 14.15 – 15.00
Sus Lundgren 2013
Updates
Lectures online (including this one) + update lit questions (now with numbers!)
Deadline for the exercise Sunday (23.59)… but you should be able to complete it today
Deadline for the lit Sunday (23.59)– If late or if missing actual lit punishment answer the
extra question