Scholars and researchers who explore human–computer interaction (HCI) understand these dynamics and study them, sometimes with phenomenological methods. For instance, Paul Dourish studies and understands HCI through phenomenology in his book Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction, describing, for instance, the “sequencing” of computerized tasks:

 

The single point of control that traditional interfaces adopt leads naturally to a sequential organization for interaction—one thing at a time, with each step leading inevitably to the next. This ordering is used both to manage the interface and to simplify system developments. For instance, “modal” dialog boxes—ones that will stubbornly refuse to let you do anything else until you click “okay,” “cancel,” or whatever they need—both structure your interaction with the computer, and save the programmer from the need to handle the complexity of worrying about other actions that might transform the system’s state while the dialog box is displayed. (51)

 

As Dourish notes, the structuring of interaction is clearly a programming choice, one that, in this case at least, has been chosen as the programmers’ path of least resistance, the easier thing to do. However, Dourish is also well aware that our interaction with technologies, particularly communication technologies, reorients our relations with others and with tech itself. He writes: "The way in which electronic communication systems have tended to increase our connectedness to each other and access to information has, in turn, changed our expectations about the availability of other people or information sources; being 'out of touch' for a week seems strangely quaint (and ever harder to achieve)" (97).