Erik Stolterman, University of Indiana in Bloomington and Umeå University: Bits as material

Humans are used to interacting with their environment through using various tools and instruments to act on, change, form, and manipulate materials. Nowadays, the field of human computer interaction is changing when it comes to the “nature” of the material that makes up the artifacts of our world—physical artifacts are transformed into partly or fully digital ones, and digital artifacts are entering into the realm of the physical reality. In relation to some studies I am working on at the moment, I will try to sketch a new understanding of human computer interaction. This is done based on the notion of bits as material. The notion of bits as material can be understood as a perspective for viewing human-computer interaction that enables new ways of explaining the phenomena of interactions with digital materials. Some concepts that emerge from this notion are: interaction complexity, distance to material, and skill convergence. These concepts will be defined, explained, and illustrated with examples from different fields of interaction.

Taken together, this perspective can be seen as complementary to more known theoretical approaches in the study of human computer interaction. It is a perspective that can provide a ground for empirical examinations and comparative studies of human-computer interaction manifestations difficult to achieve with today’s approaches. My hope is that this perspective can inform the creation of new analytical instruments for finding patterns, similarities and differences within different fields and manifestations of interaction. For instance, I will argue that we can find similarities and patterns in the way users interact with digital material in programming, word processing, web design, data mining, or information visualization, and that such findings can inform future designs of interactions.

Bio

Erik Stolterman is the Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Design program, and Professor of Informatics at the School of Informatics. He was previously Chair of the Department of Informatics at the University of Umeaa in Sweden. His research focuses on interaction design, information technology and society, information systems design, philosophy of design, and philosophy of technology. Stolterman has among other things published the books “Thoughtful Interaction Design” (2004, MIT Press) and “The Design Way” (ETP, 2003).