When you swipe right on a dating app or scroll endlessly through TikTok, you’re experiencing the marriage of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and digital rhetoric. But what exactly does this mean for your everyday digital experiences?
Douglas Eyman points out that HCI and digital rhetoric share a fundamental interest: how humans and technology influence each other. While HCI focuses on creating systems “so that people can use them efficiently, effectively, safely, and with satisfaction,” digital rhetoric examines how these systems communicate, persuade, and create meaning.
Real-Life Examples of HCI
Voice Assistants
Consider how you interact with Siri or Alexa. The HCI team designed voice recognition systems and response protocols. Meanwhile, digital rhetoricians might analyze how these assistants’ personalities are crafted to seem helpful but not threatening. When Alexa responds with humor or Siri with sass, that’s digital rhetoric at work—persuading you to form an emotional connection with a machine.
Dating Apps
Dating apps perfectly demonstrate this intersection. From an HCI perspective, the swipe interface is brilliantly efficient. But through a digital rhetoric lens, we can see how these apps are designed to keep users engaged through gamification and intermittent rewards. The interface doesn’t just facilitate connection—it rhetorically frames relationships as consumable products.
Social Media
Skeen notes that both HCI and digital rhetoric are concerned with “user empowerment.” Yet social media platforms, while empowering users to create content, simultaneously employ persuasive design to maximize engagement. That notification bell? It’s both a usability feature (HCI) and a rhetorical device designed to pull you back into the platform (digital rhetoric).
Why HCI Matters
Understanding this intersection helps us become more conscious digital citizens. Next time you find yourself unable to put down your phone, ask yourself: Is this just good design, or am I being rhetorically manipulated?
As Eyman suggests, the relationship between these fields should be “mutually beneficial.” Perhaps the same is true for our relationship with technology—but only if we understand the invisible forces shaping our digital experiences.
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