Interaction Design in the age of experience eco-systems

Mobile Interaction cannot be isolated from its context. While this interaction between a user and a personal computer tends to be immersive and central, the interaction with mobile devices is typically contextual and peripheral.

In addition, mobile devices are 1) personal and individual, and charged with emotional aspects; 2) environmental, as they have the potential to directly "mediate" our relationship with the physical context, and 3) integrated, as today communication and access to content are heavily intertwined.

Today any consideration on the interaction between a user and a mobile device cannot ignore the complexity of the relational "eco-systems" that are around this interaction.
The components of this complex networked experience are: 1) a social ecosystem, as mobile devices go beyond the one-to-one communication to mediate very rich and complex system of social relationships; 2) a content eco-system, since mobile devices allow access to images, music and videos, and peer-to-peer content generation and sharing introduce a completely new perspective of content authoring; 3) a spatial eco-system, because location-based services and communication strongly "ground" the interaction via mobile devices in the physical space; 4) a business eco-system, because no single company - or designer - can control the overall experience, but can only shape the interaction from a partial point of control, and, last but not least, 5) a platform eco-system, since mobile interaction is integrated with interaction with other platforms such as personal computers and digital TV.

About Marco Susani

Since October 2000 Marco Susani has been the director of the Advanced Concepts Design Group of Motorola PCS, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working on the future of mobile networked communication. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions and honors include the ID magazine Concept Design Award in 2001. He has co-authored the books Interface Design, Seamless Media, The Solid Side, Service Design, Presence, and New Media for Older People and he is currently preparing a book on social aspects of mobile wireless communication. Susani is on the advisory board of the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy, and has been visiting a professor and external examiner at the Royal College of Art in London, and a professor of New Media at the University of Siena, department of Communication Science.