Presentation sus lundgren

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

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…

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

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???

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…

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

Starting point: Narratives

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?

Lundgren, S. and Hultberg, T. (2009)
Time, temporality, and interaction
Interactions, Volume 16 issue 4, July + August 2009, ACM Press

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.

Framework: Temporal Themes

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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/

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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!

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: 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? :)

Presentation sus lundgren

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Presentation sus lundgren