Interaction design
Encyclopedia
In design
, human–computer interaction
, and software development
, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main focus is on behaviour. What clearly marks interaction design as a design field as opposed to a science or engineering field is that it is synthesis and imagining things as they might be, more so than focusing on how things are.
Interaction design is heavily focused on satisfying the needs and desires of the people who will use the product. Where other disciplines like software engineering
have a heavy focus on designing for technical stakeholders of a project.
and Bill Verplank
in the mid-1980s. It would be another 10 years before other designers rediscovered the term and started using it. To Verplank, it was an adaptation of the computer science term user interface design to the industrial design
profession. To Moggridge, it was an improvement over soft-face, which he had coined in 1984 to refer to the application of industrial design to products containing software.
In 1990, Gillian Crampton-Smith established an interaction design MA at the Royal College of Art
(RCA) in London (originally entitled "computer-related design" and now known as Design Interactions). In 2001, she helped found the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea
, a small institute in Northern Italy dedicated solely to interaction design; the institute moved to Milan in October 2005 and merged courses with Domus Academy
. In 2007, some of the people originally involved with IDII have now set up the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
(CIID).
Today, interaction design is taught in many schools worldwide.
Alan Cooper
argues in The Inmates Are Running The Asylum that we need to take a new approach to how interactive software based problems are solved. The problems faced with designing computer based interfaces are fundamentally different to the challenges we face when designing interfaces for products that do not include software (e.g. hammers). Alan introduces the concept of cognitive friction, whereby we treat things as human when they are significantly complex enough, we cannot always understand how they behave, and computer interfaces are sufficiently complex as to be treated this way.
It is argued that we must truly understand the goals of a user (both personal and objective) in order to solve the problem in the best way possible and that the current approach is much oriented towards solving individual problems from the perspective of a business or other interested parties.
The aim of a persona is to "Develop a precise description of our user and what he wishes to accomplish." The best method as described within The Inmates Are Running The Asylum is to construct fabricated users with names and back stories who represent real users of a given product. These users are not as much a fabrication as a byproduct of the investigation process. The reason for constructing back stories for a persona is to make them believable, such that they can be treated as real people and their needs can be argued for. Personas also help eliminate idiosyncrasies that may be attributed to a given individual.
framework provides a specialized vocabulary to evaluate and modify particular design solutions. Cognitive dimensions are designed as a lightweight approach to analysis of a design quality, rather than an in-depth, detailed description. They provide a common vocabulary for discussing many factors in notation, UI or programming language design.
Dimensions provide high-level descriptions of the interface and how the user interacts with it such as consistency, error-proneness, hard mental operations, viscosity or premature commitment. These concepts aid in the creation of new designs from existing ones through design manoeuvres that alter the position of the design within a particular dimension.
Emotional and pleasure theories exist to explain people's responses to the use of interactive products. These include Don Norman's emotional design
model, Patrick Jordan's pleasure model, and McCarthy and Wright's Technology as Experience framework.
Human factors and ergonomics
Cognitive psychology
Human–computer interaction
Design research
Architecture
User interface design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction
Human–computer Interaction is the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study...
, and software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main focus is on behaviour. What clearly marks interaction design as a design field as opposed to a science or engineering field is that it is synthesis and imagining things as they might be, more so than focusing on how things are.
Interaction design is heavily focused on satisfying the needs and desires of the people who will use the product. Where other disciplines like software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
have a heavy focus on designing for technical stakeholders of a project.
History
The term interaction design was first coined by Bill MoggridgeBill Moggridge
William Moggridge, an industrial and interaction designer, is co-founder of the Silicon Valley-based design firm IDEO and the current director of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. He designed what was the first laptop computer, the GRiD Compass...
and Bill Verplank
Bill Verplank
William Verplank is a designer and researcher who focuses on interactions between humans and computers. He is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University's CCRMA and is involved in Stanford's D-school. He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and product design from...
in the mid-1980s. It would be another 10 years before other designers rediscovered the term and started using it. To Verplank, it was an adaptation of the computer science term user interface design to the industrial design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
profession. To Moggridge, it was an improvement over soft-face, which he had coined in 1984 to refer to the application of industrial design to products containing software.
In 1990, Gillian Crampton-Smith established an interaction design MA at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
(RCA) in London (originally entitled "computer-related design" and now known as Design Interactions). In 2001, she helped found the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea was a graduate school in the field of Interaction Design operating in the town of Ivrea, in Italy....
, a small institute in Northern Italy dedicated solely to interaction design; the institute moved to Milan in October 2005 and merged courses with Domus Academy
Domus Academy, Postgraduate School of Design
Domus Academy is an international postgraduate school of design based in Milan, Italy. Domus Academy offers master courses and advanced short courses in the field of design, fashion, architecture, interior design and management. It was founded in 1982 as the first institutionalized school in Milan...
. In 2007, some of the people originally involved with IDII have now set up the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design is a postgraduate school and consultancy based in Copenhagen which focuses on the area of Interaction Design. It was launched in 2007 and recently completed its Pilot Year programme in an attempt to establish a full-time Masters course in the field...
(CIID).
Today, interaction design is taught in many schools worldwide.
Goal-oriented design
Goal-oriented design (or Goal-Directed™ design) "is concerned most significantly with satisfying the needs and desires of the people who will interact with a product or service."Alan Cooper
Alan Cooper
Alan Cooper is known for his role in humanizing technology through his groundbreaking work in software design. Widely recognized as the “Father of Visual Basic," Cooper is the author of the books, About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design and The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why...
argues in The Inmates Are Running The Asylum that we need to take a new approach to how interactive software based problems are solved. The problems faced with designing computer based interfaces are fundamentally different to the challenges we face when designing interfaces for products that do not include software (e.g. hammers). Alan introduces the concept of cognitive friction, whereby we treat things as human when they are significantly complex enough, we cannot always understand how they behave, and computer interfaces are sufficiently complex as to be treated this way.
It is argued that we must truly understand the goals of a user (both personal and objective) in order to solve the problem in the best way possible and that the current approach is much oriented towards solving individual problems from the perspective of a business or other interested parties.
Personas
Goal-oriented design as explained in The Inmates Are Running The Asylum advocates for the use of personas, which are created after interviewing a significant number of users.The aim of a persona is to "Develop a precise description of our user and what he wishes to accomplish." The best method as described within The Inmates Are Running The Asylum is to construct fabricated users with names and back stories who represent real users of a given product. These users are not as much a fabrication as a byproduct of the investigation process. The reason for constructing back stories for a persona is to make them believable, such that they can be treated as real people and their needs can be argued for. Personas also help eliminate idiosyncrasies that may be attributed to a given individual.
Cognitive dimensions
The cognitive dimensionsCognitive dimensions
Cognitive dimensions or Cognitive dimensions of notations are design principles for notations, user interfaces and programming language design, described by researchers Thomas R.G. Green and Marian Petre...
framework provides a specialized vocabulary to evaluate and modify particular design solutions. Cognitive dimensions are designed as a lightweight approach to analysis of a design quality, rather than an in-depth, detailed description. They provide a common vocabulary for discussing many factors in notation, UI or programming language design.
Dimensions provide high-level descriptions of the interface and how the user interacts with it such as consistency, error-proneness, hard mental operations, viscosity or premature commitment. These concepts aid in the creation of new designs from existing ones through design manoeuvres that alter the position of the design within a particular dimension.
Affective interaction design
Throughout the process of interaction design, designers must be aware of key aspects in their designs that influence emotional responses in target users. The need for products to convey positive emotions and avoid negative ones is critical to product success. These aspects include positive, negative, motivational, learning, creative, social and persuasive influences to name a few. One method that can help convey such aspects is the use of expressive interfaces. In software, for example, the use of dynamic icons, animations and sound can help communicate a state of operation, creating a sense of interactivity and feedback. Interface aspects such as fonts, color pallet, and graphical layouts can also influence an interface's perceived effectiveness. Studies have shown that affective aspects can affect a user's perception of usability.Emotional and pleasure theories exist to explain people's responses to the use of interactive products. These include Don Norman's emotional design
Emotional Design
Emotional Design is both the title of a book by Donald Norman and of the concept it represents. The main issue is that emotions have a crucial role in the human ability to understand the world, and how they learn new things. For example: aesthetically pleasing objects appear to the user to be more...
model, Patrick Jordan's pleasure model, and McCarthy and Wright's Technology as Experience framework.
Related disciplines
Industrial designIndustrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
- The core principles of industrial design overlap with those of interaction design. Industrial designers use their knowledge of physical formFORMFORM is the bimonthly membership magazine of the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles , and is published in Glendale, California by Balcony Media, Inc. The magazine was launched in 2007, and covers modern design and architecture...
, color, aestheticsAestheticsAesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, human perceptionPerceptionPerception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
and desire, usabilityUsabilityUsability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
to create a fit of an object with the person using it.
Human factors and ergonomics
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...
- Certain basic principles of ergonomics provide grounding for interaction design. These include anthropometryAnthropometryAnthropometry refers to the measurement of the human individual...
, biomechanicsBiomechanicsBiomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Perhaps one of the best definitions was provided by Herbert Hatze in 1974: "Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of...
, kinesiologyKinesiologyKinesiology, also known as human kinetics is the scientific study of human movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, mechanical, and psychological mechanisms. Applications of kinesiology to human health include: biomechanics and orthopedics, rehabilitation, such as physical and occupational...
, physiologyPhysiologyPhysiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
and psychologyPsychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
as they relate to human behavior in the built environment.
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
- Certain basic principles of cognitive psychology provide grounding for interaction design. These include mental modelMental modelA mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person's intuitive perception about his or her own acts and their consequences...
s, mapping, interface metaphors, and affordanceAffordanceAn affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling...
s. Many of these are laid out in Donald NormanDonald NormanDonald Arthur Norman is an academic in the field of cognitive science, design and usability engineering and a co-founder and consultant with the Nielsen Norman Group. He is the author of the book The Design of Everyday Things....
's influential book The Design of Everyday ThingsThe Design of Everyday ThingsThe Design of Everyday Things is a best-selling book by cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman about the design of simple objects, and why some objects please their users while others frustrate them....
.
Human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction
Human–computer Interaction is the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study...
- Academic research in human–computer interaction (HCI) includes methods for describing and testing the usability of interacting with an interface, such as cognitive dimensionsCognitive dimensionsCognitive dimensions or Cognitive dimensions of notations are design principles for notations, user interfaces and programming language design, described by researchers Thomas R.G. Green and Marian Petre...
and the cognitive walkthroughCognitive walkthroughThe cognitive walkthrough method is a usability inspection method used to identify usability issues in a piece of software or web site, focusing on how easy it is for new users to accomplish tasks with the system...
.
Design research
- Interaction designers are typically informed through iterative cycles of user research. User research is used to identify the needs, motivations and behaviour of end users. They designDesignDesign as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
with an emphasis on user goals and experience, and evaluate designs in terms of usabilityUsabilityUsability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
and affective influence.
Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
- As interaction designers increasingly deal with ubiquitous computingUbiquitous computingUbiquitous computing is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. In the course of ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems...
and urban computingUrban computingUrban computing is an emerging field of study that focuses on the use of technology in public environments such as cities, parks, forests and suburbs...
, the architects' ability to make, place, and create context becomes a point of contact between the disciplines.
User interface design
User interface design
User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction...
- Like user interface design and experience designExperience designExperience design is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions, with less emphasis placed on increasing and improving functionality of the design...
, interaction design is often associated with the design of system interfaces in a variety of media but concentrates on the aspects of the interface that define and present its behavior over time, with a focus on developing the system to respond to the user's experience and not the other way around.
See also
- List of interaction design programs
- Data presentation architectureData Presentation ArchitectureData presentation architecture is a skill-set that seeks to identify, locate, manipulate, format and present data in such a way as to optimally communicate meaning and proffer knowledge.-Origin and context:...
- Human-computer interaction
- Industrial designIndustrial designIndustrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
- Information architectureInformation ArchitectureInformation architecture is the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems. Among these activities are library systems, Content Management Systems, web development, user interactions, database development, programming,...
- Instructional designInstructional designInstructional Design is the practice of creating "instructional experiences which make the acquisition of knowledge and skill more efficient, effective, and appealing." The process consists broadly of determining the current state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and...
- Interaction design patternInteraction design patternInteraction design patterns are a way to describe solutions to common usability or accessibility problems in a specific context. They document interaction models that make it easier for users to understand an interface and accomplish their tasks.-History:...
- Interactive systems engineeringInteractive Systems EngineeringInteractive systems engineering is considered as an interdisciplinary field with computer engineering, systems engineering, interaction design, software development, aesthetic, ethnography, psychology and usability factors involved...
- InteractivityInteractivityIn the fields of information science, communication, and industrial design, there is debate over the meaning of interactivity. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels:...
- Interface designInterface designInterface design deals with the process of developing a method for two modules in a system to connect and communicate. These modules can apply to hardware, software or the interface between a user and a machine...
- Kinetic user interface
- Service designService designService design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers....
- Sonic interaction designSonic interaction designSonic interaction design is the study and exploitation of sound as one of the principal channels conveying information, meaning, and aesthetic/emotional qualities in interactive contexts. Sonic interaction design is at the intersection of interaction design and sound and music computing...
- UsabilityUsabilityUsability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
- User experience designUser experience designUser experience design is a subset of the field of experience design that pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models that affect user experience of a device or system...
- User-centered designUser-centered designIn broad terms, user-centered design or pervasive usability is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process...
Further reading
- Jones, Matt & Gary Marsden: Mobile Interaction Design, John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-470-09089-8.
External links
- Interaction-Design.org – A peer-reviewed encyclopedia, a comprehensive bibliography, and a calendar of interaction design events
- Design Patterns in Interaction Design
- Designing Interactions: Interviews – conversations with key figures in interaction design
- Introducing Interaction Design – Boxes and Arrows
- Interaction Design Patterns in Games – a collection of interaction design patternInteraction design patternInteraction design patterns are a way to describe solutions to common usability or accessibility problems in a specific context. They document interaction models that make it easier for users to understand an interface and accomplish their tasks.-History:...
describing solutions to common usability and accessibility problems in games.