How Human-Computer Interactions Communicate.

Throughout the end of his book Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric, Eyman extends an invitation for us to reconsider the relationships between humans, interfaces, and meaning-making. His discussion involves Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) which he treats as something that is deeply rhetorical in nature. When researching HCI, I found that Eyman contributes HCI a lot to interaction being fundamentally rhetorical. How? When thinking of users, we have to think of how they interact with digital systems. Users don’t just click or tap or scroll, their performance is not mechanical. No, they are engaging with a system that is designed to guide or shape their behaviors. This is a form of dialogue. For example, a button invites action, layouts create meaning, and certain messages communicate warning. According to Eyman, this creates power and agency. Another result of HCI is that designers become rhetoricians. The choices they make affect how their viewers understand, interpret information, and make decisions.

Argument and Multidiscipline

Another point Eyman stresses is that interfaces make arguments. A minimalist interface suggests authority, while a cluttered one communicates complexity. Recognizing these patterns are important because an interfaces design exposes the ideologies within. Things such as visibility, navigation, feedback, and the like, affect how users’ interaction is shaped; it can be desirable or undesirable. Eyman also positions digital rhetoric as multidisciplinary. Digital rhetoricians need to understand how attention and emotion interact and operate within an interactive system. Through this, the role of rhetorical scholars and practitioners expand. They communicate through experience, not just by analyzing text.Till the end of the chapter, Eyman sets his stance clear–digital rhetoric carries an ethical imperative. Designers will need to bear the responsibility of what their interfaces persuade. Digital systems affect our public and private lives. This rhetorical interaction becomes a form of governance. When we understand HCI, we are better able to communicate through digital rhetoric as we build interfaces that respect viewers and not exploit them.

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Establishing Powerful Relationships Digital Rhetoric and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Digital Rhetoric as it Relates to HCI and Critical Code Studies How Do People and Computers Interact?