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2/10 Class Notes

McCarthy & Wright Four Threads of Experience

• Sensual
• sense perception
  
• source of meaning
• visceral, palpable
• Emotional
• qualitative characteristic
  
• belongs to a person in an experience - same experience can evoke different emotions for different people
• the subject's sensemaking
  
• Compositional
• holistic perspective
• connections/relationships between separate items
  
• way things are organized or put together
• ex. - narrative distinction - discourse vs. story - story is the sequence of events that occur throughout the narrative, discourse is simultaneous movement in two directions, going back in time to gain understanding - the manner in which the story is told
• ixd - tasks and sensible sequences that designers develop to achieve an intended outcome
• has a beginning, middle and end
• consider the differences between composing on paper vs. word processor
• check out youtube video on the history of writing - "the machine is us?"
  
• Spatio-temporal
• distinction between literal space/time and subjective/experienced space/time
• ex. diff. btwn. house and home is the people
• space/place are objective, physical characteristics
• time is simply a tool of measurement
  
• the perceptions, feelings and emotions that people have within these constraints represent the experiential part of this

p. 79,80 - The four threads are not fundamental elements of experience, they are ideas to help us talk about experience in a way that we can share. Not a theory of reality, it is an ontological claim - to help us be more sensitive to the experience of reality. we need to cultivate a sensibility to be more sensitive to the experiences of others - further our understanding of how reality is to others. The ability to develop empathy is a vital characteristic of becoming a great designer.