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Translucency - In reference to the end goal of a SMALLab (or any) system; the system's tendency to facilitate events or interactions within and/or outside of the environment.
- ex. 1 - a translucent system guides the user(s) toward a goal that is accomplished outside of the system – the Ritual Space, coloring (guiding) normal behavior in order to achieve results within the real world outside of the system
- ex. 2 - an opaque system has users attempt to accomplish a goal within the environment – the Puzzle Game, requires user to focus on events within the environment in order to understand and use it; the user's end goal is accomplished within the system.

**(NOTE: if this makes any sense to anyone, please feel free to elucidate this idea further; I'm not doing a good job.)

Interesting ... who posted this? My comments below. (Lisa) **
- It sounds like example 1 involves some transfer of skills (mental or otherwise) to the outside world. In education, there is always the pervading question of "will these skills transfer" to the outside world, especially when we consider life skills for children with severe cognitive impairments. For example, would someone who learns to "cross the street" in a virtual reality simulation be able to cross the street in the real world? (Actually, it's been shown that Virtual Reality scenarios coupled with a virtual partner has helped children with autism learn skills such as this.)
- The meta-goal of Example 2 seems to be that a user approaches the state of flow (Czikzentmihalyi) and "zone of proximal development" (Vygotsky); ideally, someone is fully engrossed and engaged in an activity in an optimal balance of challenge and motivation, and the system is encouraging and advancing individual learning.

The first post was Dustin (I who am typing now). My goal with this was to present a new candidate of terminology that could help increase the conciseness and depth of ability with which to speak about environments like SMALLab. My comments below (respectively):
- Yeah, that's a good clarifying point; though, I'd hoped it could be a bit broader than just referring to skills. Emotions, experiences, interactions, skills, and more are all things that could be guided by this kind of system.
- That makes me realize that the goal of an "opaque" system may have ramifications in the outside world, but in a more self-reflexive way for a user; the user may (or may not) gain internalized knowledge, skill, or emotions and memories developed from using a system. That being said, a completely "opaque" system could not exist unless the user successfully completed the tasks but took nothing from the session at all, not even a memorable experience.
- Last thing, I think maybe "translucency" is a good term to clarify and challenge, because this type of system is unique to something so immersive as SMALLab.

translucent (Oxford English Dictionary definition)
- adjective allowing light to pass through partially; semi-transparent.
- DERIVATIVES translucence noun translucency noun.
- ORIGIN from Latin translucere ‘shine through’.
How about trying "transwangle"
- if wangle is: verb obtain (something desired) by persuading others to comply or by manipulating events.
  - Noun: an instance of obtaining something in such a way

Readings

Friberg, J., Gardenfors, D., Audio Games: New perspectives on game audio, Proceedings of the 2004 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology, Singapore, 2004. [[1]]

Oren, M., Harding, C., Bonebright, T., Evaluation of Spatial Abilities within a 2D Auditory Platform Game, Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2008. [[2]]

Tufte, Edward. (1997). Visual Confections: Juxtapositions from the Ocean of the Streams of Story in Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Chesire, Connecticut: Graphic Press.

Tufte, Edward. (2006). The Fundamental Principles of Analytical Design and Corruption in Evidence Presentations: Effects without Causes, Cherry Picking, Overreaching, Chartjunk, and the Rage to Conclude in Beautiful Evidence. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphic Press.

Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms. Ishii, H. and Ullmer, B. Proc. CHI 1997, ACM Press (1997), 234--241. Image:Tangible Bits CHI97.pdf

Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. Paul Dourish. Cambridge: MIT Press. 2001. Image:Chap2.pdf

Strategies for Evaluating Information Visualization Tools: Multi-dimensional In-depth Long-term Case Studies. Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant. Proceedings of the 2006 AVI workshop on BEyond time and errors: novel evaluation methods for information visualization. Venice, Italy, 2006. Image:A6-shneiderman.pdf

Influences of Large-Scale Form on Continuous Ratings in Response to a Contemporary Piece in a Live Concert Setting. Stephen McAdams, Bradley Vines, Sandrine Vieillard, Bennett Smith, Roger Reynolds. Music Perception. Winter 2004, Vol 22, No 2, p 297 - 350

Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research. James Hollan, Edwin Hutchins and David Kirsh. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Vol. 7., No 2, June 2000 p 174 - 196. Image:P174-hollan.pdf