interactivity & the process of discovery

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a few seminars on different forms of communication. And I found that the common string running across different speakers and different medium is the additional emphasis on providing experience at every contact point to the customer (users to me).

Even though quite a few years back during my own personal process of discovery, I have identified “recreating experience” as the winning strategy for good interactive design, this emphasis on experience even in non-sensory mediums set me thinking.

I have toyed between experimentation and discovery as the possible engine of interactive experience. During my ponderings I recognized quite a few similarities between interactivity and the process of discovery. As in the process of discovery the user experiencing interactive design is edged on by the unexpected (as in what lay behind each click) and the expectation to discover something exciting.

In this quest of discovery the mouse cease to be a mouse any longer, it becomes the extension of the hand in a virtual-real sense. And each touch sends signal of disappointment or delight (the emotional quotient of the interactive design) to the brain and the brain revels in this sensory action-reaction process of discovery.

Interactive design appeals to the senses as its culture is rooted in the human instinct to probe for life, and interactivity represent life by providing visual stimuli for action. The success of any interactive design depends on how it can make this process of discovery delightful to the senses.