Digital media technologies are becoming increasingly and extensively integrated into our way of living. We communicate, inform and entertain ourselves through media technologies in disparate spaces. When digital technology is integrated into our everyday environment, the border between media interfaces and physical environments is blurred. Traditional divisions of spaces dissolve and are rearranged, complicating the linkages between private and public spheres.   The key phenomenon shaping these experiences with digital media technologies is interactivity. Interactivity intersects these spaces allowing users of mediated content to be affected by the actual, and vice versa. This study has emerged through the need for further research focusing on the term interactivity in today’s media practices, contributing with more targeted research and theoretical work concerning the interconnection between space and digital technologies. The study pursues interactivity by taking on a different perspective than earlier research, staging a qualitative study from a grounded theory perspective complemented by phenomenological theory. In this way interactivity is approached from diverse angles, moving away from earlier fixations on technology and placing it within social and spatial contexts.   The study uses three contemporary Scandinavian interactive art installations, ‘Colour by Numbers’, ‘Emotional Cities’ and ‘Climate on the Wall’, to explore how interactivity plays into the relation between humans, technology and social space. The integration of interactive art installations in public space raises issues regarding humans’ sense of space and human relations vis-à-vis interactions with such artworks. The study finds evidence that interactive art installations can shift humans’ perceptions of space, allowing them to have social experiences and feel locally connected or anchored. Humans do not necessarily become placeless due to interactive technology. It may as well enhance space by converging with existing spatial references. The mediated and the actual may re-enforce each other expanding and transcending diverse spaces.

Designing auditory interfaces is a challenge for current human-systems developers. This is largely due to a lack of theoretical guidance for directing how best to use sounds in today's visually-rich graphical user interfaces. This dissertation provided a framework for guiding the design of audio interfaces to enhance human-systems performance. This doctoral research involved reviewing the literature on conveying temporal and spatial information using audio, using this knowledge to build three theoretical models to aid the design of auditory interfaces, and empirically validating select components of the models. The three models included an audio integration model that outlines an end-to-end process for adding sounds to interactive interfaces, a temporal audio model that provides a framework for guiding the timing for integration of these sounds to meet human performance objectives, and a spatial audio model that provides a framework for adding spatialization cues to interface sounds. Each model is coupled with a set of design guidelines theorized from the literature, thus combined, the developed models put forward a structured process for integrating sounds in interactive interfaces. The developed models were subjected to a three phase validation process that included review by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to assess the face validity of the developed models and two empirical studies. For the SME review, which assessed the utility of the developed models and identified opportunities for improvement, a panel of three audio experts was selected to respond to a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) validation questionnaire. Based on the SWOT analysis, the main strengths of the models included that they provide a systematic approach to auditory display design and that they integrate a wide variety of knowledge sources in a concise manner. The main weaknesses of the models included the lack of a structured process for amending the models with new principles, some branches were not considered parallel or completely distinct, and lack of guidance on selecting interface sounds. The main opportunity identified by the experts was the ability of the models to provide a seminal body of knowledge that can be used for building and validating auditory display designs. The main threats identified by the experts were that users may not know where to start and end with each model, the models may not provide comprehensive coverage of all uses of auditory displays, and the models may act as a restrictive influence on designers or they may be used inappropriately. Based on the SWOT analysis results, several changes were made to the models prior to the empirical studies. Two empirical evaluation studies were conducted to test the theorized design principles derived from the revised models. The first study focused on assessing the utility of audio cues to train a temporal pacing task and the second study combined both temporal (i.e., pace) and spatial audio information, with a focus on examining integration issues. In the pace study, there were four different auditory conditions used for training pace: 1) a metronome, 2) non-spatial auditory earcons, 3) a spatialized auditory earcon, and 4) no audio cues for pace training. Sixty-eight people participated in the study. A pre- post between subjects experimental design was used, with eight training trials. The measure used for assessing pace performance was the average deviation from a predetermined desired pace. The results demonstrated that a metronome was not effective in training participants to maintain a desired pace, while, spatial and non-spatial earcons were effective strategies for pace training. Moreover, an examination of post-training performance as compared to pre-training suggested some transfer of learning. Design guidelines were extracted for integrating auditory cues for pace training tasks in virtual environments. In the second empirical study, combined temporal (pacing) and spatial (location of entities within the environment) information were presented. There were three different spatialization conditions used: 1) high fidelity using subjective selection of a "best-fit" head related transfer function, 2) low fidelity using a generalized head-related transfer function, and 3) no spatialization. A pre- post between subjects experimental design was used, with eight training trials. The performance measures were average deviation from desired pace and time and accuracy to complete the task. The results of the second study demonstrated that temporal, non-spatial auditory cues were effective in influencing pace while other cues were present. On the other hand, spatialized auditory cues did not result in significantly faster task completion. Based on these results, a set of design guidelines was proposed that can be used to direct the integration of spatial and temporal auditory cues for supporting training tasks in virtual environments. Taken together, the developed models and the associated guidelines provided a theoretical foundation from which to direct user-centered design of auditory interfaces.

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In cyberculture, the unidirectionality given to mass media, is the place for network multidirectionality, reconfiguring the logic of the communication system. In Distance Education (EaD), the multiple interactive interfaces available on the internet, such as e-mail, forum, chat, WhatsApp and virtual learning environment (AVA), provide the interaction and interactivity of the subjects, fundamental conditions for a process communication with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this perspective, this study has as general objective: to investigate how the use of interactive interfaces by teachers, tutors and students, can contribute in the communicational processes of the chemistry EaD course. The theoretical framework is supported mainly by Primo (2005, 2011) studies on interactions and their interactions and interactions: participation-intervention, bidirectionality-hybridization and potentiality-interchangeability, Mattar (2012), which discusses the types of interactions between the subjects, Leite (2011, 2015) and Vasconcelos (2015, 2017) on the pedagogical use of interactive interfaces. This is a research with a qualitative approach and bias in a case study. Data were collected through a semistructured interview and questionnaire, as well as consultation with the pedagogical project of the course and other documents. The results show that: little emphasis is given in the pedagogical project to the interactions that can be established between the subjects with ICT use, however, the planning of the disciplines suggests the use of different interfaces; AVA and WhatsApp stand out as interfaces most used in the course, the latter being characteristic of learning with ubiquitous mobility; few interfaces are incorporated into the virtual environment and with limited use; there is mutual interaction between the subjects and relationships based on the binomials of interactivity; the relationships established between teachers, tutors and students are in line with what is expected for this type of education, since they recognize the need to contemplate cyberculture in the teaching-learning process. / Na cibercultura, a unidirecionalidade conferida às mídias de massa, sede lugar para a multidirecionalidade em rede, reconfigurando a lógica do sistema de comunicação. Na Educação a Distância (EaD), as múltiplas interfaces interativas disponíveis na internet, a exemplo de e-mail, fórum, chat, WhatsApp e ambiente virtual de aprendizagem (AVA), propiciam a interação e interatividade dos sujeitos, condições fundamentais para um processo comunicacional dialógico com uso das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC). Nesta perspectiva, este estudo tem como objetivo geral: investigar como o uso de interfaces interativas por professores, tutores e alunos, pode contribuir nos processos comunicacionais do curso de Química EaD. O referencial teórico é apoiado principalmente nos estudos de Primo (2005, 2011), no que tange as interações mútua e reativa, Silva (2010, 2012), sobre interatividade e seus binômios: participação-intervenção, bidirecionalidade-hibridação e potencialidade-permutabilidade, Mattar (2012), que discute os tipos de interações entre os sujeitos, Leite (2011, 2015) e Vasconcelos (2015, 2017) sobre o uso pedagógico das interfaces interativas. Trata-se de uma pesquisa com abordagem qualitativa e viés em estudo de caso. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista semiestruturada e questionário, além da consulta ao projeto pedagógico do curso e outros documentos. Os resultados evidenciam que: é pouca a ênfase dada no projeto pedagógico às interações que podem ser estabelecidas entre os sujeitos com uso das TIC, porém, o planejamento das disciplinas sugere o uso de diferentes interfaces; AVA e WhatsApp se destacam como interfaces mais utilizadas no curso, sendo este último, característico de aprendizagem com mobilidade ubíqua; poucas interfaces estão incorporadas ao ambiente virtual e com utilização limitada; ocorre interação mútua entre os sujeitos e relações fundamentadas nos binômios da interatividade; as relações estabelecidas entre professores, tutores e alunos vão ao encontro do que se espera para essa modalidade de educação, pois reconhecem a necessidade de contemplar a cibercultura no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. / São Cristóvão, SE