Interactiveness vs. Interactivity

Interactivity

Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term interactivity, although all are related to interaction with computers and other machines with a user interface.

Multiple views on interactivity exist. In the “contingency view” of interactivity, there are three levels:

Not interactive, when a message is not related to previous messages;

Reactive, when a message is related only to one immediately previous message; and

Interactive, when a message is related to a number of previous messages and to the relationship between them.

One body of research has made a strong distinction between interaction and interactivity. As the suffix ‘ity’ is used to form nouns that denote a quality or condition, this body of research has defined interactivity as the ‘quality or condition of interaction’. These researchers suggest that the distinction between interaction and interactivity is important since interaction may be present in any given setting, but the quality of the interaction varies from low and high.

Interactivity (noun)

the process of two people or things working together and influencing each other

“distance learning systems with high levels of interactivity with the teacher”

“improved interactivity between companies”

Interactivity (noun)

the ability of a computer to respond to a user’s input

“a programming language that you can use to add interactivity to your web pages”