Visual Immediacy for Sense-making in HCI

Abstract

In this paper, the use of concepts such as visual immediacy, metaphor, analogy, blending and abduction is proposed as a way of facilitating visual reasoning in sense-making activities in human-computer interaction (HCI) design. We argue, and provide two examples in support of our argument, that a skilful use of visual immediacy and other aforementioned concepts helps visual reasoning and assists participants in sense-making, collaborative processes to see diverse views, as well as patterns, categories and meanings easily. We also argue that the use of these concepts may lead to increasing the importance of visual methodologies in HCI design.

Reprint of a paper published in: Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Interfaces and Human-Computer Interaction 2014 , pp. 265-270. Made available here with permission from IADIS: www.iadis.org