I-docs

This article gives us a clear explanation of “what is interactive documentation” and how it works with the audience. Different from the traditional forms of documentation that only records the texts or photos for people to search and browse, the interactive documentation (I-docs) provides readers with another way to deal with a huge capacity of information and obtain it in more efficient ways.

Also, I think the explanation of the terms of interactivity and immersion is quite helpful to understand. It seems like interactivity and immersion are in a relation of dialectical unity, even though in the earliest time the concept of “interactivity” hasn’t really been put forward. The immersion was initially used to provide the audience with a better experience than the conventional viewing expectations. I remember in the early 21st century, some museums and art galleries first employed space projection and animation on multi-layer transparent screens to construct an immersive scene in the exhibition spaces. With the development of technology, more museums caught the trend and started using digital media and interaction method to increase the playful experience for the exhibition.

It’s hard to comment on the overall benefits for all the interaction documentation in terms of education but after all, it keeps updating with the trend of technology and really increased the expectations for the audiences in the reading or viewing experience.

Creating interactive narratives

Interactive storytelling, as defined by Ingrid, is not limited to the plot or fictional contents, but more audience-centered, eye-catching and creative in the documentation. And the “degree of interactivity” is also put forward in the article, indicating that the interaction part is controllable and could be a part of the creation by the author. Whether it is fully interactive (usually not guided intentionally by the author once the journey starts) or “soft” interactive, it involves the approach from the audience and the reaction from the content in narratives.

Also, the article highlights the importance and the trend of collaboration in the interactive story projects. The participation of writers and coders in his team really gives me inspiration of the working process of the interactive narrative projects which I used to be unfamiliar with. Currently, we are just building the basic forms of interactive story project, so the individual work is somehow primary, and we ourselves are playing all kinds of roles in creating the work. But for the bigger project, the narrative content itself is far not enough. To make the future projects to be vivid and attractive, it is of great necessity to deal with more interactive elements like sounds or physical products, which probably need participation with other professionals.

Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling