Came across a thought-provoking paper titled "Magic Ink", on the IxDA discussion board the by Bret Victor, a California based programmer, designer and visionary.

Although not a graphic designer by training, he makes an interesting case for interaction being more of a graphic design problem than merely a path for the user toward a specified goal.

I've always felt we humans were capable of absorbing and deciphering much more information than was previously thought. Brain research seems to be confirming this. Victor gives some good examples of this in some of his redesigns that use information graphics ala Tufte, rather than interaction to communicate.

That pixels are "magic ink" really struck a chord with me. A good read!