Interactive Development

The word "Interactive" is used a lot and often with not much specification as to what "interactive" is. In our opinion, interactive is any digital advertising that the consumer can interact with, this includes flash games, websites, microsites, full scale applications, and even banner ads. We provide graphic design, 3D, animation, digital video, and web & application development services. To learn more about how we can help you help your clients, contact us.

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From Wikipedia:

New media is a term used to describe both qualitatively new forms of media (e.g., the differences between analogue and digital media) and to describe media changes which, in turn, significantly affect society (Flew, 2005). The recent processes of digitizing information and the extension of digitisation to media, currently underpins the latest "new" media evolution. Characteristics of digital data (see Flew, p. 3) make it particularly suited to enabling interactivity. Interactivity is seen as a key association with new media as it basically sets apart the 'old' and new medias. Old media could only offer a sit-back type interaction, whereas new media is much more engaging to their audiences.

Technologies such as DVDs and digital TV are classic examples of interactive media devices, where a user can control what they watch and when. However, the Internet has become the prime model of an interactive system. Users can become fully immersed in their experiences by viewing material, commenting on it and then actively contributing to it. McMillan states that interactivity can occur at many different levels and degrees of engagement and that it is important to differentiate between these levels. User-to-user interaction via the internet; para-social interaction, where new forms of media are generated online; and user-to-system interactivity which is the way devices can be engaged with by a user.

Lev Manovich (2001) also makes a clear definition of what interactivity means for the user. He refers to 'open interactivity' as actions such as computer programming and developing media systems, whereas 'closed interactivity' is merely where the elements of access are determined by the user. This definition is part of his principle of variability (one of Manovich's key features of new media).

Interactivity also relates to new media art technologies where humans and animals are able to interact with and change the course of an artwork. Artists and researchers around the world are working on unique interfaces to allow new forms of interaction that extend beyond the QWERTY keyboard and the now ubiquitous mouse. Artists, such as Stelarc work to define new interfaces that challenge our notion of what is possible when interacting with machines. His Hexapod for example looks like an insect though it walks like a dog and the locomotion is controlled by shifting the body weight and turning the torso. Others like Ken Rinaldo have defined unique interfaces for fish in which Siamese Fighting Fish are able to control their rolling robotic fish bowls to interact across the gap of the glass. Simon Penny's Petit Mal allows a two wheeled sculpture to sense and respond to human presence and intelligently navigate the environment.

Denis McQuail mentions interactivity as one of the main characteristic of the new media. He quotes:
Interactivity: as indicated by the ratio of response or initiative on the part of the user to the "offer" of the source/sender