Dreaming of seamless interfaces: media and friction from the feuilleton to personal computing

Abstract

In human–computer interaction, the notion of ‘seamless interface’ describes a smooth interactive system that eliminates any possibility of friction between users and digital devices or platforms. Although interface designers have developed sophisticated technologies and strategies to pursue this aspiration, a frictionless user experience remains an ideal but ultimately impossible goal. Relying on the critical exploration of a series of historical case studies – the emergence of the feuilleton or serialised novel in the nineteenth century, the development of TV scheduling in the second half of the twentieth century, and the rise of the personal computer industry in the 1980s –, this article contextualises this ideal within a wider historical trajectory. Through an in-depth exploration of these three cases, we show how the dream of building a seamless relationship between media and readers, viewers or users remained ultimately unattainable due to the inherent frictions that persist between these two sides. The gap between the aspiration and the actual experiences of interacting with media foregrounded the emergence of feelings of ambivalence, conceived as an intrinsic component of people’s engagement with media. The longer history of media frictions provides a useful entry point to the contemporary digital landscapes, where the ubiquity of digital platforms goes hand in hand with a feeling of deep ambivalence from users, as the growing public concerns about the social costs of digital connection demonstrate.

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