The Human Computer Interaction Group: Visual Communication and Interaction

Visual communication is the essential foundation for the design of IT interfaces but there can be very different understandings of this topic. Different academic traditions have their perspective and their vocabulary through which the topic is conceptualised and understood, Practitioners have other concerns and their specific tools and techniques with which they produce the visuals and the communication embedded within. Though the technological developments have lead to new interdisciplinary approaches, these developments have yet to develop a truly interdisciplinary foundation. Because the field is still new, we each draw, sensible enough, on what we already know and master, when we approach a new area.
The following introduction to the interdisciplinarity of visual communication and interaction presents perspectives from film and media analysis, from communication studies, architecture, development of digital technologies and informatics. It should be read as an attempt to contribute to the interdisciplinary development of a theoretical frame for understanding visual interaction. However, embedded in the frame is a need for further qualification - by integrating a psychological understanding of the human being as an emotive, sensuous, bodily, intellectual and existential being. A possible frame for the initial steps in this work is suggested.