Defining Interactivity

Interactivity can mean at least two very different things. The first is described in a recent piece on Hotwired's Webmonkey site:

At the most basic level, I want Web sites to react to me the same way the guy at my neighborhood video store does. He recognizes me, remembers the kinds of movies I like, and recommends something I haven't seen yet but am sure to enjoy. He also performs the very important task of stretching my interests to genres I might not normally sample.(1)

This type of interactivity, a kind of personalization, is particularly useful for general-interest Web publications, which offer a wide range of features for a diverse audience. For example, a newspaper Web site may well have all the traditional newspaper sections -- national, international and local news; sports; arts; features; and classifieds -- as well as online-only features such as restaurant finders, calendars of events, etc. No one is going to want to explore all those areas on every visit to the Web site; a visitor may just want to get an update on the latest presidential scandal or find the closest Thai restaurant. The interactive technology that offers related articles or hunts down nearby restaurants substitutes for the browsing that people typically do in newspapers as they seek specific information.

Most online journals differ from general-interest Web publications in a few key ways: They have a finite content area and a specific audience. I'm not likely to stop by the online version of the Performing Arts Journal if I'm looking for information on abnormal psychology. Also, the contents of a typical journal are limited to a handful of reviews and articles, as opposed to the hundreds of articles that may appear in a daily newspaper -- and the hundred thousand or more that may be archived on a newspaper's Web site. So getting to what I need doesn't require much effort, or much help.

On the other hand, if I have stopped by an online journal and spent some time reading articles in a particular topic area, it would be nice to get an e-mail notice when similar articles are put online in future issues. I might be asked to register for such notices, or sophisticated technology might keep track of who I am, and when I return to the site I could be presented with material likely to grab my interest. At the very least, a publisher can gather a great deal of information about visitors by asking them to fill out a brief online registration form, such as the one used by Hypertension Dialysis Clinical Nephrology.

Link to article