draws on humanist perspectives that place analysis of digital
artefacts in contexts of multimodal textual composition, as objects
and processes of social construction and with respect to their
cultural situatedness and contexts of mediated use (Morrison et
al., in press). Focusing on Communication Design allows us to
analyse dynamic interfaces as mediating environments for cultural
expression and multimodal signification. The study we present in
this article is the first part of a wider one that connects such textual
analysis of existing interfaces to the design of interfaces for social
engagement and their location in contexts of wider use.
We analyse interfaces that are themselves concerned with
experimentation and dynamic mediation in and through the
interface. These have been developed by design bureaus and by
commercial concerns who integrate dynamic interfaces in their
professional design practice and marketing (Skjulstad, in press).
Besides analysing the interface of a well-known mobile device
(Figure 2), we focus mostly on web-based interfaces. We focus,
furthermore, on the visual and kinetic aspects of these interfaces,
even though they include other features such as sound and haptic
feedback.
To account for the interplay of dynamic elements and
the mediation of navigational activities, we have developed the
term navimation1
. Navimation refers to visual movement that
is intertwined with the activity of navigation in the interface
(Eikenes, 2009; Morrison & Eikenes, 2008). The concept of
navimation has been developed through a reflexive interplay
between design production and critical analysis in an ongoing
practice-based research project called RECORD.2