Reflexive Interaction: Extending the concept of Peripheral Interaction

Human-computer interaction (HCI) continues to evolve and interaction scenarios have to fulfill mobility, flexibility, and ad-hoc interaction where ever users are. To address this, traditional interaction concepts are being extended. While Peripheral Interaction was previously introduced, it still remains as a rather broad concept, intersecting with others, and thus creating space for further definitions. Therefore, this paper introduces the concept of Reflexive Interaction, which can be viewed as a specific manifestation of Peripheral Interaction. In contrast, Reflexive Interaction is envisioned to be executed at a secondary task without involving substantial cognitive effort. It allows the user to perform very short interactions, shorter than Microinteractions, without straining the user's main interaction channels occupied with the primary task. To clearly classify Reflexive Interaction in respect to previous interaction concepts, we use a taxonomy relying on an attention-based HCI model.