Navimation Research

(E)motional design paper at DANDE2012

Last week I presented my paper on (E)motional design at Out of Control, the 8th International Design & Emotion Conference in London. With the paper, I argue that movement and emotion are highly interconnected, and that movement has the power to affect, engage and persuade us deeply.

The presentation was of course made with Prezi, using the new 3D background feature. Feel free to click through it:

In order to analyse and design kinetic interfaces (interfaces characterized by movement) we need to consider two things at the same time: how movement helps us to carry out actions, and how movement creates meaning (=double mediation). The paper includes an analysis of how movement is used on the screen interface of the Apple iPad, as well as a design experiment in which I used stop motion animation to explore how movement can be used in a mobile app.

Ready for some academic arguments about visual movement? Have a look at the paper: (E)motional design: double mediation in kinetic interfaces.

PS 1: the paper is based on the trial lecture I held for my PhD defence in 2010.

PS 2: download the magazine app I use as an example of a kinetic interface: Katachi.

Tags: animation, complex mediation, design and emotion, design research, double mediation, emotion, kinetic interfaces, London, movement, paper, research by design

PhD thesis online

The public defence of my PhD thesis took place at AHO, December 22. The thesis, entitled Navimation: a sociocultural exploration of kinetic interface design is now available online, through AHO’s open access archive ADORA.

The thesis consists of a metareflection (kappe) and three publications. All publications have gone through peer-review and have been published before. The metareflection situates and extends these publications by providing more theoretical background and introducing new concepts and models.

Download the documents below:

Metareflection

Eikenes, J.O.(2010). Navimation: a sociocultural exploration of kinetic interface design. Doctoral thesis, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Institute of Design, Oslo.  Download the metareflection (4,69 MB)

Publication 1

Eikenes, J.O. and A. Morrison (2010). Navimation: Exploring time, space & motion in the design of screen-based interfaces. International Journal of Design, 4(1), 1-16.  Download Publication 1 (1 MB) Also available from The International Journal of Design..

Publication 2

Eikenes, J. O. (2009). Social navimation: Engaging interfaces in social media. Paper presented at Engaging Artifacts. The 3rd Nordic design research conference (NORDES). 31 August-1 September.  Download Publication 2 (0,6 MB) Also available from NORDES.

Publication 3

Eikenes, J.O.(2010). Connecting motional form to interface actions in web browsing: Investigating through motion sketching. FORMakademisk, 3(1), 80-100.  Download Publication 3 (1,4 MB) Also available from FORMakademisk. I have also created an online version with embedded videos.

Tags: AHO, downlload, online, PhD, publications, thesis

New journal article published

Some time ago my second journal article was published by the academic journal FORMakademisk. This is an open-access journal, so the article is free for everyone to download as a PDF. In addition, I have made the article available as a webpage in order to embed videos and a Prezi presentation. The article is entitled ‘Connecting motional form to interface actions in web browsing: investigating through motion sketching’, and is based on work done in collaboration with Opera Software. Here is the abstract:

It is now possible to include complex visual movement in screen interfaces, including those that enable web browsing on different media devices. This article investigates the potential for employing movement in web browsing – or more specifically, how motional form may be connected to interface actions. The investigation is carried out through design experimentation. Techniques of ‘motion sketching’ have been developed and utilized in a practice-based research project. The resulting motion sketches are analysed as realizations of complex mediation – by drawing on social semiotics and the concept of action from Leont’ev. The article argues that motional form is made meaningful through connotations and experiential metaphors, and suggests ten provisional principles for how motional form may be used in web browsing. This challenges notions of form and function in current interface design and how social semiotic theory may be produced.

Tags: article, motion sketching, motional form, Opera, publication, Theory

First journal article published

Finally! My first journal article, which is co-written with Andrew Morrison, has now been published by the International Journal of Design. This is an open-access journal, so the article is free for everyone to download as a PDF. The article is entitled ‘Navimation: exploring time, space & motion in the design of screen-based interfaces’. Here is the abstract:

Screen-based user interfaces now include dynamic and moving elements that transform the screen space and relations of mediated content. These changes place new demands on design as well as on our reading and use of such multimodal texts. Assuming a socio-cultural perspective on design, we discuss in this article the use of animation and visual motion in interface navigation as navimation. After presenting our Communication Design framework, we refer to relevant literature on navigation and motion. Three core concepts are introduced for the purpose of analysing selected interface examples using multimodal textual analysis informed by social semiotics. The analysis draws on concepts from multiple fields, including animation studies, ‘new’ media, interaction design, and human-computer interaction. Relations between time, space and motion are discussed and linked to wider debates concerning interface design.

Tags: article, finally, ijdesign, navimation, publication

To be presented: Social Navimation

I will present a full peer-reviewed paper on the Nordic Design Research conference NORDES’09: Engaging Artefacts, which will take place in Oslo in the end of August this year. The paper is called ‘Social Navimation: Engaging Interfaces in Social Media’, and explores how visually dynamic interfaces can enhance social media applications. This potential is investigated through experimental design production, followed by a textual analysis of the resulting interface prototypes. The term ‘social navimation’ is introduced and applied in the analysis, in which I investigate how semiotic resources from navimation are connected to features of social media. Hopefully, the paper will be of interest for both theory and practice of interface and interaction design, and new media studies in general.

UPDATE: The conference program and all papers are now available here. Download the full paper: Social Navimation: Engaging Interfaces in Social Media (PDF).

UPDATE 2: See the presentation.

Tags: conference, interface, NORDES, paper, social navimation