New media vs. interactive media, interaction design

Print this article

Information Design—Week 1, Assignment 2

How does New Media differ from interactive media? And how do they both incorporate interaction design?

New media refers to any media that has been “recently” made possible due to advancements made in digital technology. It is a very broad term that can apply to anything from cellular phones to e-mail to the Internet. This is a very loose definition, which allows many forms of media to be included. New media—audio CDs, for instance—are not necessarily interactive.

Similarly, interactive media has been enabled by technology, although this is not a requirement to be classified as a form of interactive media. Interactive media is simply any medium that accommodates and establishes two-way communication. Board games, for instance, require users to make decisions that affect the outcome of the game; the user chooses where to go next.

Ultimately, new media and interactive media are not mutually exclusive, but they are distinct in their definitions. Both, however, also incorporate interaction design. Interaction design is the process of creating behavior of systems—technical, biological, environmental and organizational. It defines the way a system responds to its users over time.

New media devices such as cell phones adapt to user input. Take the directory functionality for example. As a user inputs contacts into her phone, the phone’s menus change to reflect the new data. A shopping cart system on a Web site is a good example of interactive media implementing a form of interaction design; as a user adds items to his shopping cart, the software stores the specific choices he has made, thus interacting with the user.

Sources:

Comments are closed.