Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
What Constitutes a Whole Action?
In the sense that I speak about “human-computer interaction,” I mean enabling and represent-
ing actions with human and technological participants. I'm looking at a larger granularity than a
single touch, swipe, or keypress. Events with such short duration cannot assume dramatic form
in themselves, since
time
is an intrinsic factor in producing a dramatic shape. If we are looking
for coherent wholes, we need to think about the whole actions of a human's interaction with a
computer: for example, playing a chunk of a game, searching for information, doing the taxes, or
writing a letter. Such whole actions may occur in one session or over a course of time-bounded
sessions. My contention is that the session itself is more pleasurable if it has a dramatically pleas-
ing shape, and that the completion of a whole action over several sessions may be measured by
that same criterion.
Some genres of television—the “series,” the “soap opera,” or even game shows where win-
ners may appear week after week—reveal a similar wrinkle in the notion of plot as a “whole
action.” Some series like “All in the Family” or “I Love Lucy” had recurring characters, of course,
but typically featured self-contained plots in each episode. Other, typically later, series have what
might be called “trans-episodic” story arcs, so typical of soap opera. Overarching several epi-
sodes, each with their local plots, may be a larger plot that takes several episodes to unfold. The
series “Hill Street Blues” is an early example of story arc structure.
Another way in which plots may be intermingled, both in the theatre and in fi lm and televi-
sion, is when two or more seemingly unrelated plot lines are running simultaneously. In poor ex-
amples, the action simply takes turns focusing on one plot line or the other without any mutual
touch-points or resolutions. In the best examples, the plot lines converge in unexpected and
satisfying ways; in a famous
Star Trek
episode entitled “The Trouble with Tribbles,” for example,
Kirk is charged with guarding a shipment of grain to a planet that is contended for by both Klin-
gons and the Federation. Klingons come to the station for shore leave. An independent trader
shows up with some adorable little animals called tribbles, which love humans, but don't like
Klingons. The tribbles multiply very rapidly, but then begin dying off to reveal that the grain has
been poisoned. Finally, tribbles unmask the stealthy Klingon saboteur.
Human-computer interaction may involve the completion of an entire “plot” in a single ses-
sion or, like multiepisodic story arcs, over the course of several sessions. Viewed in this way, the
“plot” of human-computer interaction may be seen as the story an interactor tells herself about
what has transpired in a session or a set of related sessions. Much of that story will depend upon
the choices and actions of the interactor in collaboration with the materials, structures, and ac-
tions contributed by the computer as a coauthor or agent in the action.
