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Resisting the “Natural”: Rhetorical Delivery and the Natural User Interface

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Emerging Genres in New Media Environments
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Abstract

The author critiques the emerging paradigm in the field of human–computer interaction known as the natural user interface (NUI), typically exemplified by gestural interfaces, haptic feedback systems, touch-sensitive displays, wearable hardware, and the like. Recent rhetorical theories about the canon of delivery, theories that consider the intersection of the body and technology in the act of communication, offer a lens through which we can read and interrogate the NUI, as well as the emergent genres of digital communication born of them. Left unexamined, the NUI paradigm potentially affords unequal degrees of access to users based on differences in class, gender, culture, race or ethnicity, ability, and other factors.

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McCorkle, B. (2017). Resisting the “Natural”: Rhetorical Delivery and the Natural User Interface. In: Miller, C., Kelly, A. (eds) Emerging Genres in New Media Environments. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40295-6_5

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