This the main purpose of this thesis is to provide the sufficient theoretical basis for the design of a platform for digital publication of the written communication from independent church organizations. This design should, informed by a theoretical focus on the remediation of the text and persuasive interaction design, on one hand make good use of the many possibilities and advantages that this new digital medium provides and on the other hand compensate for its particular disadvantages compared to the analog medium.
In the first section of the thesis (afsnit 2) I investigate the main elements of a mediation process, the medium, digitality and interactivity in relation to the users. The main points from this section is, that any communication medium consists of two components: the formal component and the material component. In the case of the analog text medium the formal component is the specific text itself and the material component is its technological support and physical manifestation (e.g. the paper it is printed on). The relation between these two components is in the analog context static and fixed. When moving to the digital medium I propose that the primary differentiator (when compared to the analog medium) is, that this relation becomes dynamic and unfixed. When digital the text itself (the formal component) can and will manifest itself on screens (the material component) of different sizes and in different contexts. The flexible and dynamic character of the digital text is making it capable of adapting to users needs and wants both by automatized og manual means. To regulate and structure the manifestation this potential fragmentized and uncontextualized text, however we need to embed semantic meta-information (a meta component) in the formal component, which is understandable by and instructive to the vast material components (contexts), that potentially will be representing the given text. The dynamics of the digitality also imbues the medium with interactive qualities by which the user of the medium can interact at different levels and at different times. In the specific context of consumption of texts I identify three levels of interaction: hermeneutic, navigational and manipulatory. The digital advantages in flexibility and interactivity is mostly associated with the navigational and manipulatory interaction levels, while the hermeneutic interaction on the other hand seems to be constrained by these same advantages. This calls for a focus in the design of the digitally remediated texts.
And that is the main focal point in the second section of this thesis (afsnit 3). Here I apply the theoretical insights from the previous section about the characteristics of the digital mediation of texts on theories of activity centered information architecture, persuasive interaction design and user experience in interface design. I propose that the information architecture of the digital text medium should be implementing the semantic meta-information in the production of the texts so that the system, on the basis of a semantic structured and reusable base text, is able to represent the text in different ways conditioned by the users preferences or context. The interaction design should be informed by the different levels of interaction and thereby persuasively guide the users in the temporal process of interaction sequences: When navigating in and manipulating with the platform or the texts, the system should be highly functional, adaptable and intelligent. When immersed in the hermeneutic interaction with the text, the system should be unobtrusive,
transparent and neutral. This insight also informs the design of the interface, which in terms of (intended) user experience and style should reflect the needs at different interaction levels. The text itself should be designed by taking into account the renowned history of typographic craft, seeking to optimize legibility and in ways that the digital media in general so far have failed to do. Furthermore the potential pitfalls of the skeuomorphic metaphors in interface design is discussed and balanced with the potential benefits of this design style in terms recognizability and intuitively understandable new technology.
In the concluding section of the thesis (afsnit 4) I summarize the central points of the gained insights from the previous theoretical sections by walking through an interactive prototype of my proposed example, KirkeMag, which is a realization of a platform for an optimized digital remediation of texts.