Since the birth of the field, HCI has defined itself both as a theory of therelations between humans and numerical systems and as a practical activity that aimsat building new interactive systems. However, HCI has not yet succeeded in discoveringa unified theoretical framework nor in building a strong link between both activities.Based on an analysis from various fields, we show that most of the difficulties come fromthe computational paradigm that is still used as a foundation of most of the theories inHCI. This brings us to proposing a new philosophical view on the science of HCI, basedon a process ontology. We show how it accounts for several phenomena related to HCIand unifies them. This approach lends itself to new ways of thinking and programminginteraction at di↵erent scales, which may help HCI scientists in their modelling and designactivities
