Time, temporality, and interaction

Magazine article, 2009

Theo had just discovered the musician Robert Fripp, who is famous for recording himself while playing and then playing it back—in effect, playing along with himself [1]. Theo: "What if we do that in interaction design?" Me: "...?" Theo:"What if we use time as a kind of design material?" The question kick-started an intense brainstorming session and a project that was to last for a couple of months. Theo has a point. Most of the time we do not start out by considering time in our designs; we let other parameters steer design and let the use of time become a consequence. "The time dimension, if we may call it that, is left to take care of itself," wrote design method guru John Chris Jones [2]. For instance, when the user goes for lunch and leaves the interactions article she is writing behind in Word, was it actively decided that the time "in" Word should stop? Or, that if she later needs to open an older version of the document, time must back up and restart? What if, we asked, time "in" a program really does pass? How would this affect use? And design?