Interactivity

What I have recently learned about interactivity is that the basic function is to make a person feel that what he or she does matters. When first discussing interactivity, my thoughts flew to Guitar Hero, which happens to be the only video game that I play frequently. I thought about what makes the game enjoyable for me, and my first idea was that I liked getting high scores and accumulating points. Then we talked about the fact that pleasure can be much simpler than earning points. I think that I can be satisfied by Guitar Hero simply when I hit the right button at the right time so that the sound is correct. Guitar Hero incorporates all the components of interactivity; sound, visuals, and kinetics. The simplicity of colored buttons and musical notes that match is enough to make a person happy. In this blog I have included a couple pictures that make me think about interactivity. The first is a Rubik's Cube, which involves a personal interaction with an object. There is a goal in mind, and a puzzle to solve. I have never had the patience to complete the puzzle myself, but I have always enjoyed trying to make at least one side the same color. The second picture made me think of cultural interaction, and what a person experiences when traveling to a new place. There can be interactions with new food, new music, new architecture, new language, the list goes on and on. Travel is something that can make one easily more aware of the types of interactions that occur on a daily basis. Below I have posted a link about interactive art that I found on the web.