Researcher looks at how software design controls our interactions with technology

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois professor Ben Grosser sees his fingers as engaged in a choreographed dance as he uses the trackpad on his computer or scrolls through a list of on his phone. The software is directing the way he, and all of us, move as we use our technology all day, every day. "I started to become aware, not only of how active my fingers are in manipulating these interfaces, but also of how choreographed my fingers feel. It's a set of movements. It feels like I'm being driven, as much as I'm driving," said Grosser, a professor of new media in the School of Art and Design and a researcher with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications , where he is developing a new initiative in critical technology studies. "I'm always interested in something we're doing that we think of as natural, but that is part of a designed experience," he said.