hci seminar fall 2015

Interaction Design Rhetoric

Omar Sosa-Tzec School of Informatics & Computing Indiana University Bloomington

info I609 HCI Seminar Fall 2015

A quest for an account of the rhetoricity of HCI and the so-called UX… whatever that means

What is this presentation about?

Checking-in

Checking-in

• Persuasive Technology 2015 10th International Conference on Persuasive Technology

Checking-in


• LearnxDesign 2015The 3rd International Conference for Design Education Researchers

Checking-in


• LearnxDesign 2015The 3rd International Conference for Design Education Researchers

• Critical Alternatives 20155th Decennial Aarhus Conference

Rhetoric

Visual Rhetoric

HCI

Design

User Experience

?Visual Argumentation Visual Appeal & Persuasion Rhetorical Composition & Criticism

Interaction Criticism (IC) + HCI Hermeneutics Semiotic Engineering Metaphor in HCI

Comm Des Infodesign UID

Motivation + Quest

Exploration of rhetorical appeals, operations and figures in UI/UX Design

Sosa-Tzec, O., Siegel, M.A., and Brown, P. (2015). Exploration of Rhetorical Appeals, Operations, and Figures in UI/UX Design. In Proc. of LearnxDesign 2015. The 3rd International Conference for Design Education Researchers. DRS//Cumulus//Design-ed

Argument

• The three modes of appeal (logos, ethos, pathos) fluctuate during the UX

Argument


• Rhetorical operations (addition, subtraction, inversion, substitution) provide a vocabulary to describe the adjustments of an interface from one platform to another

Argument


• Rhetorical operations (addition, subtraction, inversion, substitution) provide a vocabulary to describe the adjustments of an interface from one platform to another

• Rhetorical figures (tropes and schemes) provide a vocabulary to describe both interface and interactions

What did we do?

Rhetorical handbookAn illustrated manual for graphic designers

‣Ehses & Lupton (1988)

‣NSCAD student work

‣Application of rhetorical concepts in graphic design

Modes of Appeal Rhetorical Operations Rhetorical Figures

‣ “Rhetoric and Design” (Ehses, 1987)

‣ Interview

‣Selected Bibliography

‣Three modes of appeal

‣Rhetorical operations

‣Rhetorical figures

‣More student work

Extracts

Other references (Online/Offline)

Illustration of Concepts

(Desktop, Web, Mobile)

What is our beta version about?

What did we observe?

Logos, ethos, and pathos fluctuate UX-wise

Logos, ethos, and pathos fluctuate UX-wise

Yahoo Weather App for iOS (initial screen) Yahoo Weather App for iOS

Rhetorical operations describe UI adjustments

Bloomberg Billionaires – The web version is the standard composition

Rhetorical operations describe UI adjustments

Bloomberg Billionaires – The mobile version is the result of the application of rhetorical operations

Addition + Subtraction + Inversion Subtraction + Inversion Inversion + Subtraction

Rhetorical figures describe interaction design

Alliteration repeats the initial parts of elements in a sequence.(Ehses & Lupton, 1988)

Clear for iOS

Ellipses deliberately omits elements from a statement. (Ehses & Lupton, 1988)

Vine web interface

Rhetorical figures describe interaction design

What does it mean?

1.The UI/UX rhetorical handbook would be used as a framework to engage designers in discussion and reflection upon possible meanings conveyed by the interface composition as the user interacts with the software

‣Denotation

‣Connotation

2.The UI/UX rhetorical handbook offers a vocabulary for UI/UX designers to analyze, conceptualize, and critique interfaces

‣To go “beyond” the figures of metaphor and metonymy



‣To move away from the skeuomorphic “origin” of interfaces




‣To consider interfaces as a kind of visual artifacts with its particular materials and ways to be shaped




‣To consider interfaces as a kind of visual artifacts with its particular materials and ways to be shaped

‣To consider interfaces as visual artifacts that affect people's lives, beliefs, and attitudes

3.The UI/UX rhetorical handbook would function to introduce UI/UX designers to rhetoric (classic and contemporary)

‣To consider software as a form of argument



‣To have a better comprehension of persuasion and persuasive technology



‣To have a better comprehension of persuasion and persuasive technology

‣ To create a link with other contemporary approaches in HCI, including interaction criticism, sustainability and feminism

Software as rhetorical argument

Sosa-Tzec, O., Stolterman, E. , and Siegel, M.A. (2015). Gaza Everywhere: exploring the applicability of a rhetorical lens in HCI. In Proc. Critical Alternatives 2015. The 5th Decennial Aarhus Conference.

Argument

• Software could be regarded as a visual (interactive) enthymeme, the form of the rhetorical argument

• “Gaza Everywhere” illustrates a case of application software working as enthymeme

• The paper suggests the use of rhetoric as a generative tool to be part of HCI/UX design pedagogy

Why do we care?

Rhetoric HCIThe applicability of

a rhetorical lens in HCI

?

Rhetoric HCI

Enthymeme

?

Speaker delivering arguments in order to win an audience

Truncated syllogism (leaving a premise unstated)

Rhetoric HCI

Enthymeme

Visual Argumentation

?

Rhetoric HCI

Visual Argumentation

Enthymeme

?

The possibility of visual arguments

“Hearts” by United Colors of Benneton (1996)

What did we do?

Source/screenshots from: http://ahmadnassri.github.io/gaza-everywhere/

Gaza Everywhere

http://ahmadnassri.github.io/gaza-everywhere/

Source/screenshots from: http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/gaza-everywhere-app-highlights-true-scale-of-humanitarian-crisis--lJ7Dz3JgQg

Publication on i100 from The Independent

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/gaza-everywhere-app-highlights-true-scale-of-humanitarian-crisis--lJ7Dz3JgQg

• Gaza Everywhere's intent is not oriented to provide a territorial truth


• Each user has a different awareness of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, which affects the perception of the application's intent


• Each user has a different awareness of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, which affects the perception of the application's intent

• Not only the interactive map, but the whole user interface (interactive map, stats, information design, and Twitter embedded timeline) functions to support the detected or interpreted claim

What did we observe?

• Unlike other traditional forms of visual enthymeme, Gaza Everywhere allows the user to play with the composition at will


• Interaction and experiential knowledge help the user to fill in the unstated premise


• Interaction and experiential knowledge help the user to fill in the unstated premise

• The user might revisit the detected or interpreted claim, which makes the rhetorical/persuasive effect of Gaza Everywhere evolve with the user

What does it mean?

user

user

designer

ij

kuser

user

User ExperienceContext of Use

appl. software(visual enthymeme)

Discourse

Future Directions

• Dialectical or rhetorical (visual interactive) argumentation?

If software is about argumentation…


• How do these efforts and ideas relate to Procedural Rhetoric (Bogost, 2010), Persuasive Design (Buchanan, 1985; Redström, 2006), and Persuasive Technology (Fogg, 2003)?



• How do these efforts and ideas relate to Procedural Rhetoric (Bogost, 2010), Persuasive Design (Buchanan, 1985; Redström, 2006), and Persuasive Technology (Fogg, 2003)?

• How do these efforts and ideas relate to Interface Criticism (Andersen & Pold, 2011), Interaction Criticism (Bardzell, 2011), and other work in Humanistic HCI (Bardzell & Bardzell, 2015)?


Do you have questions? Because I have many…

tzec.com

http://tzec.com