It is reasonably easy to see how being analytic about an interaction object, such as a menu, may help us understand the different kinds of menus and hence create a novel one suited for a special purpose.  However, it is not so immediately obvious how this might apply to experience.

In this lesson we will see that in fact there is a long tradition of analytic approaches in art.  You will learn to deconstruct the experiential elements of a situation and in so doing be in a position to reconstruct them in a different way to create parallel digital experiences.  We will use a case study of the creation of virtual Christmas crackers as a driving example, and also see a structured technique using the same principles was used to train engineers at IBM.

5.1  Deconstructing Aesthetic Experience

Surely only an utter Philistine would desecrate an artistic experience by analysing it.  In fact, literary and artistic critics do this all the time, and poets and artists often analyse their own work in order to improve it.  In this section we will see how deconstructing and aesthetic item can be used to help reconstruct a new one.

Errata (for video):  I mentioned Dylan Thomas identifying a form of poetry; but the example I was actually thinking of was Gerard Manley Hopkins coining of the term ‘Sprung rhythm’ that I was thinking of.  Both Welsh poets, but somewhat different styles.

5.2  Deconstructing Visual Elements

In this section we apply this process of deconstruction/reconstruction to a visual image.  This is particularly effective in helping move back and forth between different media: in this case from a print to a web-friendly image.  Crucially it is not simply the visual form that is recreated in the digital medium, instead the experienced elements are understood and then a new image formed achieving the same experienced effects, but with a different concrete form.

5.3  Example – Virtual Crackers

Christmas crackers are table decorations found in the UK and other countries that have had British influence.  In this section we see how the experience of sharing and pulling crackers apart (the normal intended use) can be deconstructed and then reconstructed in the digital domain.  Rather than a single image here there is a whole interactive process that takes place over an extended time.  However, this reconstruction was remarkably successful judged by fan mail.

5.4  TAPT – Teasing Apart and Piecing Together

How do you pass on the deconstruction/reconstruction process described above traditional software developers?  Clare Hooper was faced with just this problem and developed the TAPT method in a collaboration between Southampton University and IBM Research.  TAPT is a structured series of steps and worksheets designed to facilitate the process of transforming experiences in new media.