Interactive Media - Introduction

Interactive media, such as games and social media, use many of the same "rules of notice" as visual and video media, but also use “rules of action” that both allow users to make choices but also limit and influence those choices. These rules of action can be divided into features, which are the things that it is possible to do with an interactive media work, and defaults, which are the things that are easy or obvious to do.

The two of these combine to create choice architectures that make some uses possible or easier, others harder or impossible, and steer the user’s behaviour by requesting, demanding, encouraging, discouraging, refusing and allowing certain actions.[1]

In games, these rules of action are often referred to as “verbs” because they determine how the player can act on the game world. In social media, rules of action shape what we share and how we consume and interact with other people’s content.

[1] Davis, J. L. (2020). How artifacts afford: The power and politics of everyday things. MIT Press.