“Heidegger essentially posits two different ways
of being-in-the-world in relation to stuff or equipment, to use Heidegger’s
term, that one finds there (physical entities, such as tools and technologies
that for our purposes, we shall identify as media); these are ready-to-hand and
present–at-hand. (…) Heidegger claims that our everyday encounters with the
phenomena of our world are the ‘first’ way in which we come to understand them.
(…) Through this process of interaction we develop skilful use of the material
of the world and we in turn develop tacit, embodied knowledge or ‘know-how’
that allows us to cope smoothly with the world around us, enabling our
immediate survival. (…) Present-at-hand is an essentially different
‘disclosure’ of being, whereby we are no longer engaged in using the equipment
of the world, but we instead are thinking about it. Our activities are internal
and mental rather physical and active. This type of being-in-the-world provides
us with a second kind of knowledge, ‘know-that’ rather than ‘know-how’.” (p35)
Annotation
When discussing Heideggerian phenomenology in the context of interaction design then there are two ways to frame how we approach an interactive artefact: it may be either ready-to-hand or present–at-hand. The former is focused more on a physically active state of imminent use, but in the latter our activities are internal and cognitive, thinking about when to engage in active use. In both conditions we are aware of the interactive artefact without actually using it, but once we are ready we can begin interacting from these polar positions.
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