If you've been in the field of user experience design, usability testing, or marketing for anytime at all, you've almost certainly come across the use of personas to help members of a cross functional design team communicate with one another about the impacts that design decisions will have on a particular user demographic. As Adlin and Pruitt (2006) explain, personas are useful because they put an individual, human face on demographic and ethnographic data which would otherwise be difficult to explain to software engineers, project managers, information product developers, and other stakeholders in a way they can easily conceptualize and apply. Usually on one sheet of paper, a persona will provide a photo of the character for the persona; a memorable name for the persona; a short bio or background information about the persona; the persona's goals for using the product being developed; a short and memorable quote from the persona which usually conveys their ethos ; and other information relevant to the use of the product being designed such as training; previous experience with similar products, or physical disabilities (such as arthritis or poor eye sight---see http://www.clemson.edu/caah/caah_mockups/persona_clemsongrad.html for an example of personas developed for the redesign of a College's website).

In Huatong Sun's recent book, Cross-cultural technology design: Creating culture-sensitive technology for local users , the author presents a study of text messaging usage in both American and Chinese culture. Sun introduces the field to her "design philosophy and model of Culturally Localized User Experience" or "CLUE" (xiv-xv). Using the CLUE approach, Sun explores the differences in how a technology such as text messaging has developed, and has been interpreted by users, within each culture, including case studies of specific users. Sun breaks up her book into three distinctive parts: Grounding, Experiences, and Implications.

The culture we are part of tells us what aspects of design constitute "good" both in terms of aesthetics and usability. When it comes to technologies, these factors must be addressed for a given item to be successfully adopted by and correctly used within a particular culture. To put these ideas into practice, consider the following: A given interface might be very easy for the members of a particular culture to use, but if its aesthetic appeal is so jarring that individuals avoid it almost instinctively (i.e., before they actually use it), then the benefits of that interface are lost. Similarly, an aesthetically appealing interface might entice the members of a given culture to try it, but if the interface is difficult to use, then the initially interested audience is likely to abandon it. Effective communication design for international contexts thus becomes a matter of recognizing and addressing both aspects associated with "good." And as online media increasingly link the world together via information technologies, the need to understand and address such factors becomes increasingly important.

By describing cultural usability work as "information architecture," I knew I would be waging a continuous rearguard battle with database designers. Eventually the cost of bickering over turf outweighed the clarity the term brought, even considering its lineage. Richard Saul Wurman first recognized Information Anxiety in the late 1980s and described those working as Information Architects in the 1990s. Here, I remind readers that Wurman goes by the nickname "Ted." Wurman's vision of widespread attention to Technology, Education, and Design resulting in the popular TED talks---although he has an uneasy relationship with his own creation. "When he speaks about TED Talks, he clearly struggles to identify with the organisation today and is adamant that it has lost its vision." [http://www.universityobserver.ie/2012/10/31/interview-richard-saul-wurman-ted-talks/] At our current moment of media convergence, it helps to remember that the 20 minute flipped pedagogical lecture itself is the result of thirty years of dedication to disseminating disruptive ideas. If Ted Wurman can let TED go, I can let go of Information Architecture.

This paper introduces a novel comparative strategy to access, synthesize, and redesign a mobile visual analytics (VA) system. Designing, evaluating, and improving VA tools are challenging because of the exploratory and unpredicted nature of their users' analysis activities in a real context. Often the system development approach is running rounds of iteration based on one or a few design ideas and related references. Inspired by ideation and design selection from design-thinking literature, we start to redesign systems from comparison and filtering based on a broad range of design ideas. This approach focuses on the information interaction design of systems; integrates design principles from information design, sensorial design, and interaction design as guidelines; compares VA systems at the component level; and seeks unique and adaptive design solutions. The Visual Analytics Benchmark Repository provides a rich collection of the Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) challenges submission reports and videos. For each challenge design problem, there are multiple creative and mature design solutions. Based on this resource, we conducted a series of empirical user studies to understand the user experience by comparing different design solutions, enhanced one visual analytics system design MobileAnalymator by synthesizing new features and removing redundant functions, and accessed the redesign outcomes with the same comparative approach.

The approach to usability adopted by many technical communication programs often conceptually separates usability from other subject matter areas and places it at the tail-end of a project. Such an approach creates conceptual barriers with regard to how usability fits in a design project. As a result, students do not engage in the critical work of designing and testing iteratively in the formative phase of a product. We should broaden usability into user experience, enable students to see user experience as an iterative and agile process, and provide in-depth knowledge of user research methods.

This paper presents an application of stasis theory for the purpose of consulting with interdisciplinary teams of scientists working in the early stages of composing a science policy advisory document. By showing that stasis theory can be used as an organizing conceptual tool, we demonstrate how cooperative and organized question-asking practices calm complex interdisciplinary scientific disputations in order to propel productive science policy work. We believe that the conceptual structure of stasis theory motivates scientists to shift their viewpoints from solitary expert specialists toward that of allied policy guides for their advisory document's reader. We further argue that, through the use of stasis theory, technical writers can aid interdisciplinary scientists in policy writing processes, thus fostering transdisciplinary collaboration.

Our poster is an exploration of the effects of quantifying physical experiences and refashioning them into new, interactive, live experiences through data visualization; the poster explores how data visualizations are designed to teach and effect change. Specifically, the authors explore two topics: athletic training and teacher training. Both of these fields have been inundated by data analysis tactics; sports data visualizations are highly developed and hypermediate while teacher training data are still largely immediate and static Through an analysis of these two topics in relation to theories of phenomenography and remediation, the poster discusses how the use of real-time data analysis and data visualization common in sports training might inform how that we effect change in other fields, such as teaching.

As I prepare to teach the latest iteration of my course in Visualizing Information, I am struck by how quickly visualization software and techniques are advancing. As an academic, whose primary job is as a researcher and teacher, my relationship with technology is rooted at the crossroads of excitement and dread; of just catching up and being perpetually behind. I feel excitement that advancements in web functionality and design, visualization techniques, and other technology-enabled practices are finally happening and can benefit my work and the work of my students. Conversely I am filled with dread that I rarely feel fully in-the-know, much less at the bleeding edge of these developments because my job doesn't necessarily reward that kind of knowledge. As a graduate student in the fall of 2000 (Is that really 14 years ago?) I earned a webmaster certification and followed that by helping in the redesign of several websites at my university. A decade later, as an assistant professor on the tenure clock, I was composing an academic webtext and I found myself needing the help of an undergraduate student to teach me how to integrate something called jQuery into my HTML5. I was dismayed over how rusty my skills had become once my tenure responsibilities had taken over.

Liza Potts' recent book, Social media in disaster response: How experience architects can build for participation , explores the ways in which social web tools provide researchers and practitioners with opportunities to address disaster communication and information design for building participatory cultures. All too often, researchers and design practitioners in both the academy and industry think of social web tools as static, as "single-serving interfaces, systems, documents and silos" (1). In order to meet the progressive needs of contemporary knowledge workers, interdisciplinary teams that include humanists, social scientists, and technologists must build better architectures for everyday experiences users encounter in social media. Although issues of social media experience and participation may seem of concern to only a small group of information and experience designers---or, "experience architects," as Potts terms them---Potts argues that anyone who cares about writing, communication, social web design, and development should be deeply concerned with these issues, especially as they relate to how information is located and distributed as knowledge across the social web during times of disaster.

In Global UX: Design and research in a connected world , Quesenbery and Szuc present a thoughtful and adaptable guide for the reader's individual needs or projects in relation to UX (user experience), regardless of the reader's experience level. Quesenbery and Szuc gathered material from 65 interviews of UX practitioners across the globe, and analyzed over 70 hours of interviews to represent current trends and personal experiences with UX. To highlight different voices and perspectives gathered from the interviews, the authors chose to provide multiple quotations and anecdotal, yet practical, stories to define UX terminology and concepts. Quesenbery and Szuc share many effective strategies for this process, while highlighting, through vignettes from their interviews, some of the difficulties and problem-solving strategies useful when working in UX on a global (or even local) scale. The book is divided into short, easily digestible chapters with infographics that summarize each chapter succinctly. This book provides enough structure to guide novice UX practitioners, while providing innovative anecdotes, tips, and strategies for more seasoned practitioners, as well. In addition, the information gathered from the interviews highlights the passion of those in UX, helping the reader to feel passionate about UX as well.

The goal of this study is to examine the effect of user help seeking characteristics on their perception of library help design principles, formats and tools. Structural equation modeling (SEM) of a questionnaire survey results showed a number of significant regression relationships. Analysis of open-ended survey questions revealed existing user behaviors such as preferred help formats and gave insights into the likelihood of using a help system.

Written communication and its accumulated principles of applied design often serve conservative and preservationist goals. Literacy and its various, sprawling technological apparatuses of production and distribution preserve ideas and prepare them for uptake and adaptation. What is preserved in writing speaks with greater reliability over time and choices about design can influence the validity or appropriateness of those texts, by invoking proper voices and suggesting or demanding appropriate relationships between people and institutions organized around those texts. While this may seem an inhospitable way to open a column in a journal on communication design, my point is not intentionally disparaging. Instead it is to draw a contrast between types of communication design work: that which works to affiliate discourse with a location and practices of uptake and that which creates and works across those locations.

For the past few years, I have attended a number of industry conferences focused on content management (CM); reviewed a wealth of CM-focused publications, including trade books, white papers, newsletters, and blogs; and followed numerous CM-focused online discussions. Through these experiences and readings I have learned a great deal about the affordances and challenges of CM. But the message that has most impacted my thinking about CM---and what it means for the field of Technical Communication (TC)---is this: the era of document-based information development (ID), which has shaped all aspects of TC research, training, and practice since the field's inception, is coming to an end.

Meloncon's Rhetorical Accessability explores the connections between critical work in disability studies and technical communication. The first collection of its kind, included essays combine theory and practice to emphasize the value of placing disability studies at the forefront of design, workplace practices, and pedagogies. Echoing the diversity of scholarship that has contributed to this emerging area of study---from disability studies, technical communication, rhetoric, and literacy studies--- the collection emphasizes technical communication as a crucial multidisciplinary ground for critical discourse regarding disability and accessibility. As a whole, Meloncon's collection initiates a broader scholarly conversation centered on issues of accessibility in various technical communication contexts.

EuroSIGDOC, the SIGDOC European Chapter, has promoted workshops and conferences since 2010 in Europe. These events bring together researchers, academia and industry, focused on information systems, design communication, documentation and open source.

As Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) utilized in workplaces, classrooms, and community organizations continue to proliferate, it follows that the kinds of knowledge necessary to assemble those technologies in order to engage in effective professional communication are becoming increasingly complex. This article details a study conducted of two student teams engaged in a service-learning class in which they were tasked with producing high-quality digital products---a mini-documentary and a simple, but interactive website---for client organizations---an art classroom in a local public school and a mentoring initiative within a local non-profit. The main findings of this study are that students mobilized a variety of resources and created a flexible network of technologies, knowledges, people, and modes of communication in order to address issues pertinent to their clients. In addition, I argue that the most important resource students mobilized was knowledge itself, indicating that one of the most important aspects of digital composing may be in-depth, practical knowledge of technologies, modes, and the genres they involve. Ultimately, the implications of this limited, classroom-based case study are that a situated understanding of how to assemble knowledges for the effective design of communication within a given communication infrastructure may be more important than access to the most cutting-edge modes and technologies, especially when working with resource-poor organizational clients.

Immediately, the Preface and introduction of Rex Hartson and Pardha A. Pyla's (2012) co-authored The UX Book: Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience , grounds the reader in a specific overview of the practical and pedagogical components of the UX design process. The practical aspect of the text centers on what the authors call the UX lifecycle, a highly structured framework that orchestrates the many different design and evaluative stages of system or product completion. The pedagogical approach of the text is an awareness of audience that translates into a customizable book. Both authors encourage their readers to decide what parts of the text are of interest and to focus on those sections only. Central to the text's overall approach is the refrain "user experience is more than usability" (pg. xi). Within this approach, for instance, Hartson and Pyla address some of the ineffective metaphors that cloud or muddle the UX lifecycle process. Previous models often rely on testing, or lab-based metaphors that fail to generate a quality user experience. With the rise of design-oriented techniques today, the development process has been wrested from previously-held beliefs that a system or product can be generated independent of the user's environment.

This paper describes the studies undertaken in order to improve and simplify communication of health information for a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) devices, specifically the BL Healthcare Access Tablet, to older adults. Current icon and information design of the RPM devices are not well designed to reflect the needs, experiences and limitations of the older adults. In addition to this, compliance with self-management schedules is often poor due to complex and unclear instructions and information design. The issue of compliance, with the need for effective communication between chronic disease patients and healthcare professionals emphasize the need for the appropriate information design and communication technology. Communication of health information was improved from the perspective of the user experience (UX) design and information design. For the purpose of addressing the UX redesign, usability studies were conducted, followed by the information redesign and icons design. Although medical peripherals, such as an electronic thermometer, are required to measure the patient information, a mobile or tablet application can easily be used to record, send and view this data. A concept for the RPM mobile application is developed, that could be used on existing tablets and smartphones, thus eliminating the need for the current costly hardware.

One significant concern I have for the future of technical communication, a concern I often share with my students, involves the impact of "big data." Though the term is frequently used with a sneer, or at least a slightly unsettled laugh, the methods for retrieving information from large data sets are improving as I write this. One significant question the field faces is: "what new relationships will develop and what new work will technical communicators be responsible for in emergent big data projects, in coming years?"

To identify some of the research questions and needs of most importance to industry professionals and academics, we conducted a Technical Communication Industry Research Survey that posed a common set of questions about research. Here we report the results, which suggest some differing priorities for academics and industry professionals, but also some shared priorities that might help guide disciplinary research, including content strategy, user behavior, metrics/measurements, and process/practices.

Last semester I gave a talk to a small group of graduate students and faculty in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences in the College of Agriculture on my campus. As one of several invited speakers for the department's graduate seminar series, the purpose, I was told, was straightforward: model an effective presentation for the students. I teach courses in technical and professional communication so I imagined it might also be useful to discuss presentation strategies. I concluded by giving an overview of my own research interests---broadly, visual communication---and briefly described a project I am working on related to scientific graphics and historic public health maps.

A research question that I believe will be important for technical communication practitioners and scholars in the next decade is as follows How do we do develop big data methods for locating and studying web-based technical communication artifacts?

This issue considers the question of what are (or should be) the major current research problems that researchers within Design of Communication should be addressing.

As a scholarly researcher and architect working in industry, the most critical questions facing communication designers tackle complex ecosystems of people, technologies, and culturally situated practices. The field of Technical Communication is uniquely equipped to tackle these challenges (Hart-Davidson, 2001). Carolyn Rude (2009) states that scholars in the field of Technical Communication must explore how "texts (print, digital, multimedia, visual, verbal) and relative communication practices mediate knowledge, values, and action in a variety of social and professional contexts" (p. 176). She argues that research within the field must be situated at the intersection of creative practices that produce different types of texts, the cultures that provide meaningful context to such activities, and the technologies that support the production of both texts and meaning. But, where does Rude's call to action point Technical Communication as a field, now? What new research questions have emerged at the intersection that she describes?

Computer-assisted translation (aka machine translation) is on the fast track to becoming a utility. Translation will automatically become part of everything we do. Computers, websites, touch screen devices, in-car navigation systems, kiosks in public places, ATMs, airline self-service terminals -- basically any consumer-facing graphic user interface -- will include a "translate" button. In fact, the beta version of the Android operating system includes just that in the latest rendition of the Chrome browser. That's just the start of things to come. Machine translation will soon be ubiquitous!

We believe that one of the major research questions that will drive the field of technical communication during the next 5--10 years is, "How can technical communication scholars navigate increasingly cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, and cross-organizational contexts to support social justice through better communication?"

When I bought my first Mac I was frustrated by the lack of instructional documentation in my shiny new box. I found myself regularly going online to look for help in the form of PDFs or videos. A company professionally produced these instructional "texts". Enter the webcam, the iPhone, and a host of websites to upload user-generated content, and we increasingly see end users becoming produsers, individuals whom produce as well as consume information.

I'd like to add my brief response to your discussion about research questions facing our discipline. I can immediately name two.

Distinct from prose essays as cultural expression, we use technical communication for functional purposes, addressing questions of how people learn as we craft our communications. Aristotle set out psychological principles of how people learn -- or are persuaded to change their minds -- when he laid down his foundational advice for rhetors to cultivate "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion on almost any subject presented to us." Building on this foundational principle, technical communicators since World War II have studied how to achieve persuasion (or change) by making information accessible, formatting documents, writing at designated reading levels, and setting out instruction steps clearly. Recently, we have also become interested in how, through the concept of rhetoric, oral and written language acquires poignant social, ethical and technical dimensions, situating Aristotle's "faculties" of persuasion within specific cultural and political contexts.

In this poster presentation, the author traces health communication in online spaces, especially conversations about hypothyroidism on Twitter. Specifically, the author looks at how participants on Twitter use the hashtag #hypothyroidism for patient agency and advocacy. The strength of ties between #hypothyroidism (the Twitter hashtag) and the actors necessary for its existence is also discussed. This poster presentation argues that Twitter can strengthen patient agency and advocacy in both online and offline relationships between hypothyroidism patients and healthcare professionals. Patient agency and advocacy is accomplished because Twitter helps to build communities of support between and among patients and professionals through the immediacy and accessibility of information.

This position paper proposes the undertaking of a systematic research agenda on the tangled questions of accessibility, technology, and disability from the perspective of Technical Communication field. O'Hara (2004), Oswal and Hewett (2013), Palmeri (2006), Porter (1997), Ray and Ray (1999), Salvo (2005), Slatin and Rush (2003), Theofanos and Redish (2003 and 2005), and Walters (2010), have approached accessibility issues in various Technical Communication contexts and have emphasized the need for more attention to accessibility in our research, teaching, and practice. Likewise, the major journals in our field-- Technical Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly and the IEEE Transactions in Professional Communication ---have also published at least one special issue EACH on the topic of accessibility. While all this sporadic research has appeared on accessibility-related topics in different venues, this research has not yet gained the type of traction one would generally expect from an area with such a growth potential. As a user-centered discipline, we also ought to remember that presently 57.8 million Americans have one or more disabilities. Among the U.S. veteran population alone, 5.5 million are disabled. And, if we consider the reach of our Technical Communication work via the World Wide Web, this planet has 1 billion people with disabilities who can be affected by our accessibility research (National Center for Disability, 2013).

Humans routinely fail to comprehend complexity and anticipate long-term consequences. Systems dynamicists try to overcome these weaknesses by developing computer-supported models that can account for multiple variables in non-linear relationships. Using programs such as STELLA and Vensim, systems dynamicists create stock-and-flow diagrams, equations, and, ultimately, interfaces that enable others to interact with the model. This paper describes how one such model was developed and speculates on roles that technical communicators might play in future projects.

In this paper, we discuss the use of visual representations to assist people in understanding complex information about sea level rise and climate change. We report on the results of a 2011 study in which we conducted plus-minus document usability evaluations of documents describing the mechanisms and consequences of sea-level rise in coastal areas. The protocol included 40 participant interviews and post interview quizzes. We tested with three documents, one that presented information for the U.S. southeastern coastal region and two that presented information "localized" for the two areas in which we conducted the research. Findings indicate that participants had difficulty with information presented in graphs and maps and that, while they indicated preferences for localized information, localized images did not improve understanding of complex information.

In this paper, we illustrate how merging contract design with information design, especially visualization, can help to transform contracts (and people's perceptions about contracts) from legal rules to communication tools. We argue that improved human-contract interaction can maximize the value of commercial relationships, minimize risk, and prevent workplace frustration. Viewing contracts as boundary objects and changing their design to overcome the current challenges offer unexplored opportunities for both research and practice.

Today, the process of image management is extremely time-consuming for IT administrators. Until now, this complicated process has not been extensively explored by design researchers. During a recent research study at Citrix, we interviewed 17 IT professionals. We used a process we call "adaptive interviewing," a flexible methodology that could accommodate the various infrastructures of IT organizations and the diversity of ways that administrators handle image management. While conducting our interviews, we worked with our information designer to create several visualizations of our data. Ultimately, we found that supplementing interviews with information visualizations is a powerful way to explore, understand, and explain the complex system of IT image management.

Disciplinary differences cause multiple problems with trying to create a research study that gauges readers' comprehension of complex scientific information. This paper provides a case study of the some of the issues associated with research methods and methodologies on an on an interdisciplinary team.

There are a multitude of rules of writing and design. Cargo cult design occurs when designers rigidly apply a design rule without a clear understanding of why the rule exists or whether it applies to the situation. The rules moved into the status of being a rule for a reason. It is important for designers to understand those reasons so they can critically analyze the situation and make decisions about the applicability of the rule. Successful design requires deeply understanding and working within the situational context and not blindly applying generic rules.

As usability experts describe the appropriate models for writing in digital, they consistently express the need to write in a user-centric format. While I agree with the importance of efficient navigation in Web content, I suggest that user-centric writing only applies to part of the content we find in a website. Other styles of writing are almost always required. Two additional styles are persuasion-centric and quality-centric writing. These two styles are required by almost all marketing writing and especially marketing writing for the prosumer community. In this article I extend the ideas found in user centered design to include user-centric, persuasion-centric, and quality-centric writing (which combination I call ReaderCentric writing ). I believe this impacts information architecture in a number of important ways, perhaps most notably in the way the various writing styles impact the mindset of the information architect. I will explain why these writing models are important and demonstrate what happens when the models are ignored or not understood, plus how they may be successfully applied to marketing documents on the Internet. Finally, I will speculate on how information architecture may be adjusted to meet the needs of the content, writer, and reader.

In 2011, I faced a complex research problem: how could mobile device user experience (HCMVX) of visitors to Humboldt County, California, be measured and improved? Mobile visitors are visitors who actively use their smart mobile devices, like smart phones and iPads but not laptops, while on vacation. In 2011, there were no official records or policies regarding mobile visitors and little local awareness of mobile tourism in Humboldt County. No one had measured mobile visitors' experience in Humboldt County and few officials had any idea on how to improve these visitors' experiences. This information and policy gap also meant there was no clear way to contact mobile visitors or arrange for mobile usability tests. I faced a complex system with no clear starting point. Traditional usability methods did not initially help because the majority of usability methods rely on clearly identified users, tasks, or goals. While I planned to use traditional usability methods once the users and usability problem(s) were identified, it was necessary to first locate and identify the users and their tasks and goals. Using Deleuze's assemblage concept, I approached the complex system of HCMVX, identified potential points of engagement, conducted field research and interviews, analyzed, and wrote up my results in less than six months. Local officials took my results and reshaped part of their policies and merchant training based on my data and conclusion. Deleuze's assemblage offers usability practitioners a means to approach complex systems and rapidly identify points of engagement.

Traditional usability firms (or usability groups within large companies) tend to focus on evaluation, and their design process typically ends at the Discover phase. For organizations (or individuals) that tout themselves as "User Experience", the goal is to have the research and data dictate design, going so far as to have the research person creating wireframes - defining screen layout, interaction models and information architecture. After all, isn't a research-based interface what we're after?

This poster reports data from a pilot study of communication practices in the microblogging site Twitter. A content analysis was conducted on a random sample of 50 tweets from the #hpv (human papillomavirus) stream in order to determine any recurring practices such as use of links, retweets, uses of the @ symbol, and other phenomena. The pilot study found that, unlike studies conducted on communication patterns in Twitter streams, the participants in the #hpv stream use it to primarily broadcast information as opposed to interacting and conversing with one another, and collaboration, while present indirectly, is minimal. The researcher plans to expand the sample set to 900 tweets and continue the process of content analysis in order to determine more solid findings for practices of communication in this space. The researcher also plans to examine other spaces relevant to the exchange of information on HPV, conduct content analyses for them, and compare them to the findings on Twitter. The goal is to use these findings for both health and technical communication so that better systems can be designed to optimize the power of participant generated information spaces.

To elaborate on a recent tweet by Dan Cederholm of the development studio, SimpleBits, and author of the standards-focused Bulletproof Web Design , current web development practice, with its many device, format, and user contingencies, is creating an ever-expanding and increasingly complex geography for novice web writers and developers to navigate and learn. For a novice to output the ceremonial "Hello world" in 2013 is to greet a world of web writing barely comparable to the inline-styled, table-formatted, and JavaScript-leery World Wide Web which many veteran developers first learned.

Supporting the next generation of design of communication scholars is a core mission for Communication Design Quarterly. Beginning with this issue, we hope to highlight the exciting research that our younger generations are contributing to the field.

In this paper we analyze the works of the Keio-NUS CUTE Center at the National University of Singapore in order to uncover the dispositions of "analogness" and "digitalness" in regards to the relationship between users and interfaces. By comparing concepts of embodiment from a philosophical perspective, paired with the computer science treatment of analog and digital data, we derive a contingent definition for analog-like and digital-like interaction. With case studies as reference, we outline a continuum to describe types of interfaces based on these dispositions, which could then be further analyzed using characteristics for designing analog-like, digital-like or hybrid-like interactive systems. We then propose a new methodology for designing novel interactive systems that are analog in nature, called interactive analog media (IAM) and finally describe a prototype system called Linetic, which exemplifies some of the characteristics described in this paper.

Our experiences as part of the Writing in Digital Environments (WIDE) Research Center have led to a complete break with the notion that we are concerned with the effective communication of idea to an audience or even with the related idea that we design technologies for that purpose. At least this is the stance that we take in this very short essay.