1.2.2 Interactivity on Oct. 4th, 2007.

1.2.2 Interactivity

Actually interactivity is not a quite new idea because it's been existing in our lives, but it's changing.

First of all, we have to find out the difference between 'feedback' and 'interactivity.' According to a dictionary, the definition of 'feedback'is something that someone tells you how well or badly you're doing, and how you could improve. This isn't wrong, but we usually use this term here little bit differently. It means just letting users know what it is. It's quite simple. For instance, when I click on something on the operation system like windows XP, it makes me know it's clicked by making a sound such as a bell sound.
According to a dictionary, on the other hand, interactivity means "a system or program which allows direct communication between the user and the machine." In fact, it gives us something more than the feedback gives. For example, when we click on a button, it gives us a sound that just makes us know that we clicked on it. This is a feedback. In contrast, when we click on a button in a interactive system, the system can calculate the speed of moving and clicking, so it can tell us how hurry we are or what situation we are in. Therefore, it makes us know not that what we've done to the system but also something more than this such as the above example.

There are two kinds of views toward the interactivity. First one is an instrumental view. One of the examples is thinking about how we can useTV as well as PC. Secondly, an ideological view is about what's existing beyond something. For instance, if we've bought something at a store, empoyees at the store would send some catalogs about products which are relative to what we've bought before. In other words, they provide different information to different people.
ideological view