Immediacy and Hypermediacy: mind the oscillation

Jim Bizzocchi,Luciane Maria Fadel

doi:10.23972/det2021iss22pp31-41

Abstract

This paper considers that web design comprehends the notion of transparency (immediacy) as a mean to support user immersion. But it also comprehends the notion of opaque (hypermediacy) as a mean to support interactivity. Therefore, the user oscillates between being immersed on the content and interacting with the interface, and this oscillation might disrupt the making sense process. We argue that the creative oscillation between immediacy and hypermediacy can enhance reality and thus support meaningful web experience. To this end, this paper investigates the role of agency to sustain oscillation between immediacy and hypermediacy in a website. Thus, this paper starts reviewing some of the works that instantiate narrative in design and those that focus on the agency that is experienced when interacting with a computer. Thus, agency is used as an analytical lens to investigate how interface design was used to specific outcomes in retail context: a sense of aesthetic, service excellence, playfulness and consumer return on investment. In order to that, it is performed a close reading in two versions of two specific genres of websites to understand how remediation changed over time and its implication on agency. The first genre is service design, and the second is product design. The results suggest that those design that privilege narrative and cognitive interactivity intend to provoke a sense of aesthetic and service excellence. The results also suggest that those websites that privilege explicit interactivity intend to provoke a sense of playfulness and consumer return on investment. In addition, a creative oscillation between immediacy and hypermediacy enhance reality and support meaningful user experience. In addition, this paper identifies some of the signifiers that support different levels of agency. Finally, exploring the oscillation between immediacy (transparency) and hypermediation (reflectivity) creates meaning to the experience because it acknowledges the interface and the role it plays in presenting reality.

Highlights

New media might be understood as remediation of older media (MCLUHAN, 1964)
We investigate the role of agency to sustain a creative oscillation between immediacy and hypermediacy
Understanding meaning-making in the process of humanartifact interaction has been a challenge since Protagoras declared that “Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, how they are, and of things which are not, how they are not” (EPPS, 1964). This endeavor comprises studies of the relationship between design practices, interdisciplinary and academic disciplines (PREECE, ROGERS and SHARP, 2002). These studies focus on a wide variety of perspectives: the aesthetic of interaction (DJAJADININGRAT, OVERBEEKE and WENSVEEN, 2000; LÖWGREN, 2009; MOTTU and LAMAS, 2015), emotional design (DESMET and HEKKERT, 2009), design of experience (HASSENZAHL and TRACTINSKY, 2006; FORLIZZI and FORD), fun (BLYTHE, OVERBEEKE, et al, 2004), experiential marketing (SCHMITT, 1999; SHOBEIRI, MAZARAHERI, and LAROCHE, 2014), product design (HEKKERT and DIJK, 2011), and the science of design (KRIPPENDORFF, 2005)

Summary

Introduction

New media might be understood as remediation of older media (MCLUHAN, 1964). For Bolter and Grusin, remediation is “the representation of one medium into another” (1999, p. 45). To the other extreme, the new medium absorbs the older medium entirely. This rationale supports the formation of a media vocabulary. As a website moves toward more aggressive remediation from older media, different forms of visualization and representation may be achieved, which intend to create a more direct and meaningful experience. This intention usually leads the user to become aware of the medium (hypermediate), and the oscillation between immediacy and hypermediacy can amaze the user (BOLTER and GRUSIN, 1999). Playfulness results from the intrinsic enjoyment of engaging in activities when the consumer becomes a participant in the process of producing value that goes beyond price

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Conclusion