Interface Frictions (Paperback)

Neta Alexander

ISBN 10: 1478032162 / ISBN 13: 9781478032168

Editore: Duke University Press, North Carolina, 2025

Paperback. In Interface Frictions, Neta Alexander explores how ubiquitous design features in digital platforms reshape, condition, and break our bodies. She shows that while features such as refresh, playback speed, autoplay, and night mode are convenient, they can lead to digital debility - the slow and often invisible ways that technologies may harm human bodies. These features all assume an able-bodied user and at the same time push users to ignore their bodily limitations like the need for rest, nourishment, or movement. Building on the lived experiences of people with disabilities, Alexander explores alternative design solutions that arise from a multisensorial approach to communication. She demonstrates what can be gained from centering the nonaverage user, such as blind people who pioneered ways to control the playback speed of media, and Netflix subscribers with invisible disabilities like PTSD who successfully pushed the company to redesign its previews autoplay feature. Drawing on artworks, video games, and creative hacking by users with disabilities, Alexander challenges our understanding of media consumption, the attention economy, and the digital interface. Neta Alexander explores how ubiquitous design features in digital platforms such as playback speed, autoplay, and night mode, reshape, condition, and break our bodies. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Codice articolo 9781478032168

Riassunto:

In Interface Frictions, Neta Alexander explores how ubiquitous design features in digital platforms reshape, condition, and break our bodies. She shows that while features such as refresh, playback speed, autoplay, and night mode are convenient, they can lead to “digital debility” - the slow and often invisible ways that technologies may harm human bodies. These features all assume an able-bodied user and at the same time push users to ignore their bodily limitations like the need for rest, nourishment, or movement. Building on the lived experiences of people with disabilities, Alexander explores alternative design solutions that arise from a multisensorial approach to communication. She demonstrates what can be gained from centering the nonaverage user, such as blind people who pioneered ways to control the playback speed of media, and Netflix subscribers with invisible disabilities like PTSD who successfully pushed the company to redesign its previews autoplay feature. Drawing on artworks, video games, and creative hacking by users with disabilities, Alexander challenges our understanding of media consumption, the attention economy, and the digital interface.

Informazioni sull'autore: Neta Alexander is Assistant Professor of Film and Media at Yale University and coauthor of Failure.

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: Interface Frictions (Paperback)
Casa editrice: Duke University Press, North Carolina
Data di pubblicazione: 2025
Legatura: Paperback
Condizione: new