A Particular Presentation

There has been a lot of e-chatter on the Interaction Culture blog by students in Jeff Bardzell’s class. Most of it has been on phenomenology and structuralism as Jeff attempts to bring philosophy and media criticism into the language of interaction design. (Jeff prototyped the course during his stint a year ago in the HCI seminar for Ph.D. students, enough so the blogging and podcasting content is familiar yet depressingly unaccessible. All of the documentation is appreciated, though, since it means there is a living record of the class I can peruse when time permits.) One of those posts caught my attention and reminded me of an interesting bit of street art.

Amazing sidewalk paintings: views intended (left) and unintended by the artist.

There are larger collections of this kind of art elsewhere, including a great photo essay showing the creation of this particular piece.

What is interesting about these incredible works is the differential in experience for the viewer depending on which way you look at the painting. From the artist’s perspective, the two-dimensional image has the appearance of 3D landscaping, as if the concrete had been excavated to allow for a raging river to flow into an abyss. Approaching from the opposite direction, however, the painting is abstract, not recognizable as much of anything. In order to appreciate the work fully, a particular view is required.

Human-computer interaction is moving toward this kind of design. It used to be that one strove to design for everyone. One general thing used by all. Then, we focused on a specific demographic group or user segment, catering the interfaces to meet their needs, and hoping that in doing so no one was really left out. With a trend toward customized personal experience, the design is often made for a single person. If Erik Stolterman (by way of Aristotle) would like us to think of the objects we create as an ultimate particular, perhaps we are also encouraging design for an ultimate particular user … someone who has to be placed in a particular way to interact with our design.