Article:
Swipe to Unlock. How the Materiality of the Touchscreen Frames Media Use and Corresponding Perceptions of Media Content

dc.creatorWerning, Stefan
dc.date.accessioned2018-09-25T15:09:51Z
dc.date.available2018-09-25T15:09:51Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractSince the release of iconic devices like the Nintendo DS (2004) and particularly the first iPhone (2007), touchscreen interfaces have become almost omnipresent and arguably shaped a “touch-screen generation”. But how do touchscreen experiences operate as complex assemblages of material contingencies, electronics, algorithms and user interaction? And how do they function in actual software applications? In order to address these questions, the paper outlines a comparative software studies perspective, which com-prises four consecutive steps. The introduction draws on cultural studies research on touchscreen interfaces to establish a theoretical framework for understanding the shifting epistemic status of the screen and the complex relationship between technical affordances and cognitive processes. Second, the paper explores aesthetic implications of the materiality of touchscreens, including the shift from vertical to horizontal navigational logic and the focus on physical contiguity in user experience design. Third, a series of short, interconnected case studies serves to illustrate the more specific implications on practices of media use and cultural production in a variety of applications. For example, apps like Vine evoke the ‘tangibility’ of digital material by allowing users to start and stop record-ing video by touching and releasing the screen respectively. Other, even more iconic examples include the swipe mechanic employed in Tinder and particularly the ‘swipe to unlock’ gesture used in the Android operating system. Finally, the previous findings are contextualised by briefly investigating the cultural imaginary of the touchscreen, which manifests itself in the form of haptic feedback as well as curved and even wearable touch-sensitive surfaces.en
dc.identifier.doi10.25969/mediarep/704
dc.identifier.urihttp://digicults.org/files/2016/11/II.1-Werning_2015_Swipe-to-unlock.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/3142
dc.languageeng
dc.publishertranscript
dc.publisher.placeBielefeld
dc.relation.isPartOfissn:2364-2114
dc.relation.ispartofseriesDigital Culture & Society
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 Generic
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
dc.subjectMensch-Maschine-Kommunikationde
dc.subjectHuman-Computer Interactionen
dc.subject.ddcddc:004
dc.titleSwipe to Unlock. How the Materiality of the Touchscreen Frames Media Use and Corresponding Perceptions of Media Contentde
dc.typearticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dcterms.bibliographicCitationWerning, Stefan (2015): Swipe to Unlock. How the Materiality of the Touchscreen Frames Media Use and Corresponding Perceptions of Media Content. In: Digital Culture & Society 1 (1), S. 55–71. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/704.
dspace.entity.typeArticleen
local.coverpage2021-05-29T02:30:00
local.identifier.firstpublishedhttp://digicults.org/files/2016/11/II.1-Werning_2015_Swipe-to-unlock.pdf
local.source.epage71
local.source.issue1
local.source.spage55
local.source.volume1
local.subject.gndhttps://d-nb.info/gnd/4125909-9
local.subject.wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q207434

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