Post-text messaging?
Have you ever been thinking about this little symbol?
I sometimes do. It gives me that anticipation, that sense of presence, which always makes conversations a lot more enjoyable.
I have a question though.
Why do we have this representation of a conversation as the standard?
This feels like something we inherited from here:
It does seem really useful to see the chronological order of the sentences, I have to admit.
But, what about… when you’re both present?
I feel like, that’s a special case, which can be a lot more… emotional? And also, where non-verbal self-expression can be a priority. I mean, in real life, I don’t have to wait till you finish a sentence to react - I can wave my hands, I can pull a face, I can start shouting.
If I want to represent a real-life, real-time conversation, it would look somewhat similar to this:
What if we dropped the strict chronological order in your favourite messaging app?
Then you could react to a message in an instant…
I have a very simple, buggy prototype right now that will enable you to drag messages around: Github
Can I throw it away?
Can I put it upside down?
Can I tilt it slightly to make space for a new topic?
Can I make the important ones bigger?
.. what else could I do?
If anything comes to your mind, ping on twitter!
This whole concept came from the long conversations with @marblekittykat, @bonsaielectric, @dmvrg