Reading report: Where the action is

Title: Where the Action is, the Foundations of Embodied Interaction
Author(s): Paul Dourish
ISBN: 0262541785
Read: December 2007

Summary

 
Interesting bits

Embodied interaction is inspired/based on two areas of research: tangible computing and social computing.
Technological systems impose fixed barriers: between devices, applications, media, etc. Human respect barriers of different sorts: public/private, work/home, etc.

Invisible interface is problematic/flawed. No place for appropriation and understanding. The interface needs to meditate user action. [Hammer example]

Physicality arises in two ways:
-manipulate digital information and functionality through the manipulation of physical objects
-Use the physical environment/elements as a medium for the expression of digital information.
Should be more natural? More humane, less symbolic representation than traditional computation.

Tangible interface -> sequential doesn’t hold. Difficult to program/design for. But can rely on affordance somehow.

Embodied Int. is about the relation between action and meaning. A duality.

Based on phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, Schutz [intersubjectivity], Merleau-Ponty[human subject, bodily skills, cultural skills), language theory (Wittgenstein), Being-in-the-world, tacit knowledge.

Affordance: property of the environment that affords action to appropriately equipped organisms [p. 118]. Opportunity for actions.

Heidegger: equipment as a tool and for some task. Ready-to-hand & present-at-hand

History of Interaction : electrical-> symbolic->textural->graphical->visual metaphors

Work processes (regularized procedures) vs Work practice (informal knowledge/habits)

Social actions are intrinsically embedded and organized.

Meaning: Ontology [understand things], Intentionality [directness of our actions] and Intersubjectivity [social beings in a shared world]

Coupling: users/people do coupling , not systems

Design principles:
-computation is a medium
-users, not designers, create and communicate meaning
-users, not designers, manage coupling.
-embodied technologies participate in the world they represent
-embodied interaction turns action into meaning