Upload
kirsten-woodhams-thomson
View
225
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
1/38
Craig Ivaiv
Applicais ad Dvics
SeConD eDItI on
dsigigfr iraci
Da Saffr
00_DFI(p3).indd 1 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
2/38
Designing for Interaction, Second Edition:Creating Innovative Applications and DevicesDan Saer
New Riders
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (ax)
Find us on the Web at: www.newriders.com
o report errors, please send a note to [email protected]
New Riders is an imprint o Peachpit, a division o Pearson Education
Copyright 2010 by Dan Saer
Project Editor: Michael J. Nolan
Development Editor: Box welve Communications, Inc.
Production Editor: Becky Winter
Copyeditor: Rose Weisburd
Prooreader: Darren Meiss
Indexer: James Minkin
Cover designer: Aren Howell
Interior designer: Andrei Pasternak with Maureen Forys
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No par t o this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any orm
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission o the publisher. For inormation on getting permission or
reprints and excerpts, contact [email protected].
Notice of Liability
Te inormation in this book is distributed on an As Is basis without warranty. While
every precaution has been taken in the preparation o the book, neither the author nor
Peachpit shall have any liabilit y to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instruct ions contained in this
book or by the computer soware and hardware products described in it.
Trademarks
Many o the designations used by manuacturers and sellers to distinguish their products
are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit
was aware o a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner o
the trademark. All other product names and services identied throughout this book are
used in editorial ashion only and or the benet o such companies with no intention oinringement o the trademark. No such use, or the use o any t rade name, is intended to
convey endorsement or other aliation with this book.
ISBN 13: 978-0-321-64339-1
ISBN 10: 0-321-64339-9
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States o America
00_DFI(p3).indd 2 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
3/38
Ad
Te shadow o the two years I spent steeping in design at Carnegie Mel-
lon University looms large over this book. When I wrote the rst edition,
I ound mysel constantly reerring to my notes rom that time and hear-
ing the echoes o my proessors words, including those o Dan Boyarski,
Kristen Hughes, Karen Moyer, John Zimmerman, and Jodi Forlizzi. I want
to particularly note the infuence o Dick Buchanan, who immeasurably
broadened my understanding o this discipline, and my riend and advisor
Shelley Evenson, who taught me at least hal o what I know about interac-
tion design. Without her knowledge and experience, poorly ltered through
me, this book would be shallow indeed.
In the second edition, the infuence o my proessional colleagues at Adap-
tive Path and now Kicker Studio can be elt. Particular kudos to Adaptive
Pathers Brandon Schauer, Peter Merholz, and especially Henning Fischer,
who helped lead me, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the world o
design strategy. Tis book is much improved or its inclusion. My Kicker
Studio partners Jennier Bove and om Maiorana have been generous with
their editing and design help, not to mention encouragement.
My interviewees were generous with their time and expertise and Id l ike to
especially thank them. Your presence in my book honors me.
Im also grateul to companies who lent their case studies and beautiulproduct images to the book, illustrating my points better than I could have
with words alone.
Te sta at Peachpit/New Riders has been a tremendous help in making this
book what it is, in this edition and the last. My editors Michael Nolan, Becky
Winter, and Je Riley have polished my rough edges (and there were many)
into the ne tome you have in your hands (or on your screen). Another spe-
cial thanks goes to my riend and technical editor Bill DeRouchey, whose
insights burnished this book.
Other riends who have lent their support and help with both this edi-
tion and the last: Phi-Hong Ha, Jesse James Garrett, Andrew Crow, Jan-
nine akahashi-Crow, Krist ina Halvorson, Marc Rettig, Adam Greeneld,
Ryan Freitas, Rae Brune, Jennier Fraser, Lane Becker, Brian Oberkirch,
Chad Torton, Rob Adams, Kenneth Berger, Willow Stelzer, Kim Lenox,
odd Wilkens, Uday Gajendar, Chiara Fox, Dave Malou, Kim Goodwin,
00_DFI(p3).indd 5 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
4/38
vi AcknowleDgements
Nancy Broden, Alan Cooper, Dana Smith, Rachel Hinman, Erika Hall,
Rachel Glaves, Samantha Soma, Sarah Nelson, Jared Spool, Jody Medich,Mike Scully, Laura Kirkwood-Datta, Liz Danzico, Kevin Daly, Shinohara
oshikazu, Zach Hettinger, my in-laws Mary and Barry King, and my sister,
Meagan Duy.
Tanks to my parents, who bought me my rst computer (a imex Sin-
clair 1000) and a 300 baud modem and who paid the ensuing long-distance
phone bills.
My daughter Fiona, a budding interaction designer hersel, had to endure
my writing when I could have been playing Wii with her. More time or
Mario now.
Lastly, and most importantly, without the support o my wie, Rachael King,
the creation o this book would have been impossible. All writers need time
and space, and those are always her gis to me. Tis book is as much a prod-
uct o her generosity as it is o my words.
00_DFI(p3).indd 6 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
5/38
c
Introduction xiii
Chapr 1: Wha Is Iraci Dsig? 1
What Are Interactions and Interaction Design? . . . . . . . . .3
Tree Ways o Looking at Interaction Design . . . . . . .4
Why Interaction Design? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Focusing on Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Finding Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Using Ideation and Prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Collaborating and Addressing Constraints . . . . . . . .7
Creating Appropriate Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Drawing on a Wide Range o Infuences . . . . . . . . . .8
Incorporating Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
A (Very) Brie History o Interaction Design. . . . . . . . . . .8
1830s to 1940s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
1940s to 1960s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1960s to 1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1990s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2000s to Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17A Stew o Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Products and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Why Practice Interaction Design? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapr 2: th Fur Apprachs Iraci Dsig 31
User-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Activity-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Systems Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Genius Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
00_DFI(p3).indd 7 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
6/38
viii contents
Chapr 3: Dsig Sragy 47
What Is Design Strategy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Design Strategy and Business Strategy . . . . . . . . . 49
Framing the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
raditional Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Design Brie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Stakeholder Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Metrics and Return on Investment (ROI) . . . . . . . . 59
Competitive Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Determining Dierentiators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Fighting Feature-itis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Visualization and Visioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Vision Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Project Planning and Roadmapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Product Roadmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Chapr 4: Dsig Rsarch 73
What Is Design Research?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Why Bother with Design Research?. . . . . . . . . . . 75
Research Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Costs and ime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Recruiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Moderator Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Conducting Design Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
What Not to Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Ethical Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
What to Look For and How to Record It . . . . . . . . . 84
Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
00_DFI(p3).indd 8 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
7/38
contents ix
Chapr 5: Srucurd Fidigs 93
Preparing the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Make the Data Physica l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Manipulating the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Analyzing the Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Summation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Extrapolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Abstraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Conceptual Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Personas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Chapr 6: Idai ad Dsig Pricipls 113
Creating Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Structured Brainstorming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
Organizing Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
Creating Design Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
Chapr 7: Rm 127
Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
Te Laws and Principles o Interaction Design . . . . . . . . .129
Direct and Indirect Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . .129
Aordances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Feedback and Feedorward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Mental Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Fittss Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Hicks Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135Te Magic Number Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
eslers Law o the Conservation o Complexity . . . . .136
Te Poka-Yoke Principle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
Errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
00_DFI(p3).indd 9 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
8/38
x contents
Frameworks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138Postures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Documentation and Methods o Renement . . . . . . . . .143
Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
Sketches and Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Storyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146
ask Flows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147
Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
Mood Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Wirerames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Service Blueprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156
Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158
Non-traditional Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Gestures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Presence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Chapr 8: Prypig, tsig, ad Dvlpm 169
Interace Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170Sound Eects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Low-Fidelity Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
High-Fidelity Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Service Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
esting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Heuristic Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .184
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Agile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192
00_DFI(p3).indd 10 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
9/38
contents xi
Chapr 9: th Fuur f Iraci Dsig 193
Te Next Five Years o the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195ools or the Next Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196
Intelligent Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197
Spimes and the Internet o Tings . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197
Human-Robot Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199
Wearables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Ubiquitous Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
For Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
epilgu: Dsigig fr Gd 211
Ethics in Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Deliberate Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Index 215
00_DFI(p3).indd 11 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
10/38
Ab h Ah
Although he wouldnt hear the term interaction design or another decade
and a hal, Dan Saer did his rst interaction design work as a teenager in
the mid-1980s when he designed and ran a dial-up game on his Apple IIe, a
2600-baud modem, two foppy disk drives, and a phone line. And yes, it was
in his parents basement.
Hes worked ormally in interactive media and product design since 1995 as
a webmaster, inormation architect, copywriter, developer, producer, cre-
ative lead, creative director, and, o course, interaction designer. Currently,
hes one o the ounders and principals o Kicker Studio, a product design
consultancy in San Francisco.
Dan has designed a wide range o products, rom Web sites to interactive
V services, rom mobile and medical devices, to touchscreens, gestural
interaces, and robots. His clients have included Fortune 100 companies,
government agencies, and startups.
He holds a Masters in Design, Interaction Design rom Carnegie Mellon
University, where he also taught interaction design undamentals.
He lives and works in San Francisco and can be ound online at http://www.
odannyboy.com and on witter at @odannyboy.
00_DFI(p3).indd 12 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
11/38
Irduci
00_DFI(p3).indd 13 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
12/38
xiv IntroDuctIon
In the last decade, and especially in the three years since the rst edition o
Designing or Interaction was published, interaction design as a disciplinehas come into its own. Even people who have never heard o interaction
designwhich is to say, most peopleunderstand that how their devices
work is as important as how they look. A beautiul mobile phone that unc-
tions poorly will cause months o rustration. We know, and the popular
press has celebrated, that the best products are those that are unctionally
and aestheticallybeautiul.
Te past several years have also brought us some absolutely wonderul
examples o interaction design that have sparked the imagination: Apples
iPhone, Nintendos Wii, iRobots Roomba, Microsos Surace, witter,
and social networks like Facebook. More and more, previously dumbproducts are being outtted with microprocessors, sensors, and network-
ing capabilities, while the Web has matured to a sophisticated platorm or
applications o a ll sorts. Desktop applications have become interwoven with
the Internet or interesting combinations. Devices can locate themselves in
physical space and provide geo-located inormation. Exploding processing
power, cloud computing, and cheap digital storage make all sorts o new
products possible.
All o these things mean the rules o interaction design (such as they are) are
being rewritten. Te paradigms o how we interact with computing devices,
such as the desktop metaphor that weve used or around 40 years now, arechanging and being added to. We relate to our productsand thus, to each
otherin new ways. Its an exciting t ime to be in this eld.
Tis book is about the discipline that denes how digital products behave.
It doesnt contain any code; indeed, Ive tried to be as technology and plat-
orm agnostic as possible. Ive written this book or both new designers who
are just getting started, as well as more advanced designers who might want
to rene their processes or add to their set o design tools.
Whas nw i this edii
Tis book addresses a airly serious faw in the rst edition, namely that
while there was a lot o good inormation, there was no process to help new
designers put all that inormation into an order, into practice. In this edi-
tion, Chapters 3 through 8 step through a general design process that can
be used or a wide variety o projects. Not every step needs to be ollowed,
00_DFI(p3).indd 14 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
13/38
xvIntroDuctIon
and the process is in an ideal order that seldom happens in designing. But
at least there is a process.
Additionally, several signicant new topics have been added. Design strat-
egy (Chapter 3) is brand new in this edition and I daresay does the best
job Ive seen in distilling this step (and growing eld unto itsel) down to
its essentials. In the rst edition, the translation o research into models
and then into concepts was poorly done; this edition addresses that crucia l
stage. Likewise, there was no mention o design principles, and this was an
unortunate oversight.
Service design, which was its own chapter in the rst edition, has been more
integrated into the book or two reasons. Te rst is that service design has
become its own area o study. Te second reason is that the line between
services and products has gotten blurrier. It is dicult to nd products,
and especially the networked products interaction designers work on, that
arent part o a service o some kind.
Readers o the rst edition also asked or reerences and recommendations
to dive deeper into the various topics, so each chapter now has a For Fur-
ther Reading section at the end as well as ootnotes to specic articles.
I hope this book is a starting point or your work in interaction design. It
is, however, only a book, and books alone cant make you a great designer.
Only designing will do that. I urge you to try out everything in this bookor yoursel, change it as necessary to t your working style, your company,
your users, and the project youre on.
So get to ittheres much to be designed.
San Francisco
June 2009
00_DFI(p3).indd 15 7/15/09 2:58:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
14/38
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
15/38
1
What Is Interaction
Design?
01_DFI(p3).indd 1 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
16/38
2 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
Every moment o every day, millions o people send e-mail, talk on mobile
phones, instant message each other, record V shows on digital videorecorders (DVRs), and listen to music on MP3 players. All o these things
are made possible by good engineering. But its interaction design that
makes them usable, useul, and un.
You benet rom good interaction design every time you:
. Go to an automatic teller machine (AM) and withdraw cash with a
ew simple touches on a screen.
. Become engrossed in a computer game.
. Cut and paste cells on a spreadsheet.
. Buy something online.
. witter rom your mobile phone.
. Update your status on Facebook.
But the reverse is oen also true. We suer rom poor interaction design all
around us. Tousands o interaction design problems wait to be solved
such as when you:
. ry to use the sel-checkout at a grocery store and it takes you hal
an hour.
. Cant get your car to tell you whats wrong with it when it breaks down.
. Wait at a bus stop with no idea when the next bus wil l arrive.
. Struggle to synchronize your mobile phone to your computer.
. Cant gure out how to set the clock in your microwave oven.
Any time behaviorhow a product worksis involved, interaction designers
could be involved. Indeed, or the best experience, theyshouldbe involved.
Back in 1990, Bill Moggridge (Figure 1.1), a principal o the design rm
IDEO, realized that or some time he and some o his colleagues had been
creating a very dierent kind o design. It wasnt product design exactly, but
they were denitely designing products. Nor was it communication design,
although they used some o that disciplines tools as well. It wasnt computerscience either, although a lot o it had to do with computers and soware.
No, this was something dierent. It drew on all those disciplines, but was
something else, and it had to do with connecting people through the prod-
ucts they used. Moggridge cal led this new practice interaction design.
01_DFI(p3).indd 2 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
17/38
What are InteractIons anD InteractIon DesIgn? 3
In the decades since then, interaction design has
grown rom a tiny, specialized discipline to onepracticed by tens o thousands o people all over
the world, many o whom dont call themselves
interaction designers and may not even be aware
o the discipline. Universities now oer degrees
in it, and youll nd practitioners o interaction
design at every major soware and design rm,
as well as in banks such as Wells Fargo, hospitals
such as the Mayo Clinic, and appliance manuac-
turers such as Whirlpool.
Te rise o the commercial Internet in the mid 1990s and the widespreadincorporation o microprocessors into machines such as cars, dishwashers,
and phones where previously they hadnt been used led to this explosive
growth in the number o interaction designers because suddenly a mul-
titude o serious interaction problems needed to be solved. Our gadgets
became digital, as did our workplaces, homes, transportation, and com-
munication devices. Our everyday stu temporarily became unamiliar to
us; the conusion we once collectively had about how to set the clock on
the VCR spread to our entire lives. We had to relearn how to dial a phone
number and work the stereo and use our computers. It was the initial prac-
titioners o interaction designmostly coming rom other disciplines
who helped us begin to make sense o our newly digitized world and the
Internet, and these same people, now aided by new interaction designers,
continue to rene and practice the cra as our devices, and our world, grow
ever more complex.
W a Ii d Ii Di?
Although we experience examples o good and bad interaction design every
day, interaction design as a discipline is tricky to dene. In part, this is
the result o its interdisciplinary roots: in industrial and communication
design, human actors, and human-computer interaction. Its also because a
lot o interaction design is invisible, unctioning behind the scenes. Why do
the Windows and Mac operating systems, which basically do the same thing
and can, with some tinkering, even look identical,feelso dierent? Interac-
tion design is about behavior, and behavior is much harder to observe and
Figure 1.1
B Mggrdg,
ar f Designing
Interactions and
ndra dgnr fr
n f r app
cmpr, GRD
Cmpa, cnd
rm nracn
dgn afr bng
akd f rm
f-fac.
CouRtesyBillMoGGRiDGe
01_DFI(p3).indd 3 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
18/38
4 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
understand than appearance. Its much easier to notice and discuss a garish
color than a subtle transaction that may, over time, drive you crazy.
An interaction, grossly speaking, is a transaction between two entities, typ-
ically an exchange o inormation, but it can also be an exchange o goods
or services. Tis book is called DesigningforInteraction because it is this
sort o exchange that interaction designers try to engender in their work.
Interaction designers designforthe possibility o interaction. Te interac-
tion itsel takes place between people, machines, and systems, in a variety
o combinations.
Three Ways of Looking at Interaction Design
Tere are three major schools o thought when it comes to dening interac-
tion design:
. A technology-centered view.
. A behaviorist view.
. Te Social Interaction Design view.
What is common about all three views is
that interaction design is seen as an artan
applied art, like urniture making; its not a
science, although some tried and true rules
have emerged (see Chapter 7). Interaction
design is by its nature contextual: it solves
specic problems under a particular set o cir-
cumstances using the available materials. For
example, even though a 1994 Mosaic browser
(Figure 1.2) was an excellent piece o interac-
tion design, you wouldnt install it on your
computer now. It served its purpose for its
time and context.
Like other applied arts, such as architecture, interaction design involves
many methods and methodologies in its tasks, and ways o working go in
and out o vogue and oen compete or dominance. Currently, a very user-
centered design methodology in which products are generated with users
is in style, but this hasnt always been the case, and recently these methods
Figure 1.2
Dgnd b
Marc Andrn,
Mac brwr
(wc vna
vvd n Ncap
Navgar) wa a
fanac pc f
nracn dgn,
makng Wb
accb vrda
pp. i nrdcd
nracn dgn
paradgm n
da, c a
back bn.
01_DFI(p3).indd 4 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
19/38
Why InteractIon DesIgn? 5
have been challenged (see Chapter 2). Microso perorms extensive user
testing and research; Apple, known or its innovative interaction design,does very little.
The Technology-Centered View
Interaction designers make technology, particularly digital technology,
useul, usable, and pleasurable to use. Tis is why the rise o soware and
the Internet was also the rise o the eld o interaction design. Interaction
designers take the raw stu produced by engineers and programmers and
mold it into products that people enjoy using.
The Behaviorist ViewAs Jodi Forlizzi and Robert Reimann succinctly put it in 1999 in their pre-
sentation Interaction Designers: What we are, what we do, & what we need
to know, 1 interaction design is about dening the behavior o artiacts,
environments, and systems (or example, products). Tis view ocuses on
unctionality and eedback: how products behave and provide eedback
based on what the people engaged with them are doing.
The Social Interaction Design View
Te third, and broadest, view o interaction design is that it is inherently
social, revolving around acilitating communication between humansthrough products. Tis perspective is sometimes called Social Interaction
Design. echnology is nearly irrelevant in this view; any kind o object or
device can make a connection between people. Tese communications can
take many orms; they can be one-to-one as with a telephone call, one-to-
many as with a blog, or many-to-many as with the stock market.
W Ii Design?
Te term design can be dicult to get a handle on. Consider this ina-
mous sentence by design history scholar John Heskett: Design is to designa design to produce a design.
1 Dwnad nn a p://gdgr.cm/dc/AiGAFrzz_Rmann2001.pdf
01_DFI(p3).indd 5 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
20/38
6 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
People have many preconceived notions about design, not the least o which
is that design concerns only how things look: design as decoration or styl-ing. And while there is nothing wrong with appealing aesthetics, design can
be more than that. Communication (graphic) and industrial design bring
ways o working that interaction designers embrace as well. Here are some
o the approaches that interaction design employs:
Focusing on Users
Designers know that users dont understand or care how the company that
makes a product is run and structured. Tey care about doing their tasks
and achieving their goals within their limits. Designers are advocates or
end users.
Finding Alternatives
Designing isnt about choosing among multiple optionsits about creating
options, nding a third option instead o choosing between two unde-
sirable ones. Tis creation o multiple possible solutions to problems sets
designers apart. Consider, or example, Googles AdWords. Te company
needed advertising or revenue, but users hated traditional banner ads.
Tus, designers came up with a third approach: text ads.
Using Ideation and Prototyping
Designers nd their solutions through brainstorming and then, most impor-
tant, building models (Figure 1.3) to test the solutions. Certainly, scientists
and architects and even accountants model things, but design involves a sig-
nicant dierence: design prototypes arent xed. Any particular prototype
doesnt necessarily represent the solution, onlya solution. Its not uncommon
to use several prototypes to create a single product. Je Hawkins, designer o
the original PalmPilot, amously carried around small blocks o wood, pre-
tending to write on them and storing them in his shirt pocket until he came
upon the right size, shape, and weight or the device.
01_DFI(p3).indd 6 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
21/38
Why InteractIon DesIgn? 7
Collaborating and Addressing Constraints
Few designers work alone. Designers usually need resources (money, mate-
rials, developers, printers, and so on) to produce what they dream up, and
these resources come with their own constraints. Designers seldom have
carte blanche to do whatever they want. Tey must address business goals,
compromise with teammates, and meet deadlines. Designing is almostalways a team eort.
Creating Appropriate Solutions
Most designers create solutions that are appropriate only to a particular
project at a particular point in time. Designers certainly carry experience
and wisdom rom one project to the next, but the ultimate solution should
uniquely address the issues o that particular problem. Tis is not to say
that the solution (the product) cannot be used in other contextsexperi-
ence tells us it can and wi ll bebut that the same exact solution cannot (or
shouldnt anyway) be exact ly copied or other projects. Amazon has a greate-commerce model, but it cant be exactly replicated elsewhere (although
pieces o it certainly can be); it works well within the context o the Amazon
site. Design solutions have to be appropriate to the situation.
Figure 1.3
inracn dgnrd pan cra
(and rw awa) a
var f prp
f var d
r cncp.
CouRtesyChe
RylRieDel
01_DFI(p3).indd 7 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
22/38
8 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
Drawing on a Wide Range of Inuences
Because design touches on so many subject areas (psychology, ergonom-ics, economics, engineering, architecture, art, and more), designers bring to
the table a broad, multidisciplinary spectrum o ideas rom which to draw
inspiration and solutions.
Incorporating Emotion
In analyt ical thinking, emotion is seen as an impediment to logic and mak-
ing the right choices. In design, products without an emotional component
are lieless and do not connect with people. Emotion needs to be thought-
ully included in design decisions. What would the Volkswagen Beetle be
without whimsy?
a (V) Bi hi Ii Di
Teres a tendency to think that interaction design began around the time
that Bill Moggridge named it, in 1990, but thats not really true. Interaction
design probably began, although obviously not as a ormalized discipline,
in prerecorded history, when Native Americans and other tribal peoples
used smoke signals to communicate over long distances, and the Celts and
Inuit used stone markers called cairns or inuksuit as landmarks, to com-
municate over time (Figure 1.4).
Figure 1.4
A mdrn carn. in
ancn m, carn
wr d fr man
prp: mark
mnan mm, a
drcna markr,
and a ndcar f
bra .
CouRtesyistoCkPhoto
01_DFI(p3).indd 8 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
23/38
a (Very) BrIef hIstory of InteractIon DesIgn 9
1830s to 1940s
Many centuries later, in the mid 1830s, Samuel Morse created a system toturn simple electromagnetic pulses into a language o sorts and to com-
municate those words over long distances. Over the next 50 years, Morse
code and the telegraph spread across the globe (Figure 1.5). Morse not only
invented the telegraph, but also the entire system or using it: everything
rom the electrical systems, to the mechanism or tapping out the code, to
the training o telegraph operators. Tis didnt happen overnight, naturally,
but the telegraph was the rst instance o communication technology that,
unlike the printing press, was too sophisticated or a small number o people
to install and use. It required the creators to design an entire system o use.
Similarly, other mass communication technologies, rom the telephone to
radio to television, required engineers to design systems o use and inter-
aces or the new technologies. And these systems and interaces were
needed not only or the receiving devicesthe telephones, radios, and tele-vision setsbut also or the devices used to create and send messages: the
telephone switches, microphones, television cameras, control booths, and
so on. All o these components required interaction design, although it cer-
tainly wasnt called that at the time. Indeed, it is very common or the rst
Figure 1.5
Mr cd
ranmr. t
grap wa
r cng
m a wrd
wrd -cad
Vcran inrn.
CouRtesyistoCkPhoto
01_DFI(p3).indd 9 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
24/38
10 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
practitioners o interaction design in any new platorm or medium to be the
engineers who created the technology itsel.
But the machines that ueled these technologies were, or the most part,
just that: machines. Tey responded to human input, certainly, but not in
a sophisticated way. Tey didnt have any awareness that they were being
used. For that, we needed computers.
1940s to 1960s
Te rst wave o computersENIAC and its ilkwere engineered, not
designed. Humans had to adapt to using them, not vice versa, and this
meant speaking the machines language, not ours. Entering anything into
the computer required days plugging in cables or, in later machines, hours
preparing statements on punch cards or paper tape or the machine to read.
Tese paper slips were the interace (Figure 1.6). Engineers expended very
little design eort to make the early computers more usable. Instead, they
worked to make them aster and more powerul, so the computers could
solve complicated computational problems.
At the same time as these developments were occurring in the computing
eld, other disciplines that eventually inormed interaction design were
Figure 1.6
Pnc cardn f
r nrfac
w cmpr,
a w a a man
f daa rag. B
1980, am
a f m ad
bn pad b
cmmand-n r Gui
nrfac.
CouRtesyistoCkPhoto
01_DFI(p3).indd 10 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
25/38
a (Very) BrIef hIstory of InteractIon DesIgn 11
growing, too. Engineers and industrial designers such as Henry Dreyuss
created the new eld o human actors, which ocused on the design oproducts or dierent sizes and shapes o people. Te eld o ergonomics
ocused on workers productivity and saety, determining the best ways
to perorm tasks. Cognitive psychology, ocusing on human learning and
problem solving, experienced a resurgence, led by such academics as Allen
Newell and George Miller.
In 1945, Atlantic Monthly published a seminal article titled As We May
Tink2 (reportedly written in 1936) by Vannevar Bush, in which he intro-
duced the Memex, a microlm-based device or storing books, records, and
communications, which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with
exceeding speed and exibility.
It consists o a desk, and while it can presumably be operated rom a dis-
tance, it is primarily a piece o urniture. On the top are slanting translucent
screens, on which material can be projected or convenient reading. Tere
is a keyboard, and sets o buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an
ordinary desk.
Te Memex (Figure 1.7) was Bushs con-
cept or augmenting human memory.
While just a concept, it was the rst
imagining o hypertext, and one o the
rst or a desktop computing system. It
has inuenced generations o interaction
designers since, starting with Douglas
Engelbart and ed Nelson in the 1960s.
1960s to 1970s
As computers became more powerul, engineers began to ocus on the peo-
ple using computers in the 1960s, and began to devise new methods o input
and new uses or the machines. Engineers added control panels to the ront
o computers, al lowing input through a complicated series o switches, usu-
ally in combination with a set o punch cards that were processed as a group
(batch processing).
2 Rad nn a p://www.aanc.cm/dc/194507/b
Figure 1.7
on f drawng
f Vannvar B
Mmx dvc a
appard n Life
magazn n 1945.
N an
np dvc dcad
aad f m.
01_DFI(p3).indd 11 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
26/38
12 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
In 1960, ed Nelson started his Project Xanadu, with the goal o creating
computer networks with simple user interaces. While it never real ly cameto ruition, it was the rst attempt at a hypertext system. Nelson, in act,
coined the term hypertext in 1963.
1963 also brought Ivan Sutherlands
Sketchpad (Figure 1.8), the rst
computer program to utilize a ully
graphical user interace and a light
pen or input. Using Sketchpad, users
could draw both horizontal and verti-
cal lines and combine them into g-
ures and shapes. Sutherland in 1968created Te Sword o Damocles, which is widely considered to be the rst
virtual reality system. (Te head-mounted display worn by the user was so
heavy it had to be suspended rom the ceiling, thus inspiring the name.)
Sometime around 1965, the rst killer application, e-mail, was invented
as a way or multiple users o a time-sharing mainrame computer to com-
municate. By 1966, e-mail had expanded to allow users to send messages
between dierent computers. By 1971, e-mail was being sent across ARPA-
NE, the precursor to the Internet. Ray omlinson, who created the e-mail
standards still in use (such as the @ symbol in e-mail addresses), sent the
rst e-mail between dierent host systems, reportedly something insigni-cant like QWERYUIOP.
Te ARPANE (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was devel-
oped by ARPA o the United States Department o Deense and was the pre-
decessor o the global Internet. Conceived as the Intergalactic Computer
Network in 1962 by J.C.R. Licklider, the rst two links o the network
(UCLA and Stanord) connected on November 21, 1969. While ARPANE
certainly wasnt a design milestone, its creation lead to the platorm and
medium that caused interaction design to ourish: the Internet.
In 1968, Doug Engelbart did a 90-minute presentation that is now known
as Te Mother o All Demos3 (Figure 1.9). In it, Engelbart showed the
work hed been doing or the previous several years, essentially creating
the next two decades o interaction design. As well as being the rst public
3 Wac nn a p://an.anfrd.d/Ms/1968Dm.m
Figure 1.8
ivan srand
skcpad. on
f skcpad
nnvan wa
mar drawng f
wc r cd
cra dpca.if r cangd
mar drawng,
a nanc f
drawng wd
cang a w.
01_DFI(p3).indd 12 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
27/38
a (Very) BrIef hIstory of InteractIon DesIgn 13
demonstration o the mouse,
Engelbart demonstrated an incred-ible variety o interaction design
paradigms we now take or granted,
such as point and click, hyperlinks,
cutting and pasting, and networked
collaboration.
Many o these paradigms were to nd a home at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto
Research Center), ounded in 1970. Te head o Xerox PARC, Bob aylor, urged
employees to think o computers not as just processing devices, but instead as
communication devices.
Xerox PARC remains legendary. Its
contributions to the eld, many o
which are contained in its signature
products the Xerox Alto (Figure 1.10)
and the Xerox Star, are everything
rom windowing and icons and the
desktop metaphor to WYSIWYG text
editing. Employees included Alan
Kay, who conceived o the rst laptop
computer, the Dynabook, in 1968;
Larry esler and im Mott, who con-ceived o the desktop metaphor and
such now-standard interactions as
cut-and-paste; and Robert Metcale,
who invented Ethernet networking
in 1973.
Famously, Steve Jobs got a demo o the Xerox Star and proceeded to include
its innovations into Apples subsequent computers, the Lisa and, eventually,
the Macintosh.
In the mid-to-late 1970s, experiments like Myron Kruegers VIDEOPLACE
explored virtual reality experiences and gestural interaces, and the rst
touchscreen devices became commercially available.
Te 1970s also began the computer gaming industry with games such
as Pong (1972) and the Atari 2600 gaming console (1977). Tis reected
another major trend in the 1970s: the shiing ocus rom the computer
Figure 1.9
Dcmbr 9, 1968,wa Dg engbar
Mr f A
Dm a Fa
Jn Cmpr
Cnfrnc n san
Francc. engbar
dmnrad
a m, vd
cnfrncng, -ma,
and prx n
Nls (Nln sm)
1,000 and.
Figure 1.10Xrx A. on f
r prna
cmpr, and
r
dkp mapr.
CouRtesy MARCiN WiChARy
01_DFI(p3).indd 13 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
28/38
14 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
itselthe hardwareto the soware that runs it, particularly soware
that was not designed by computer scientists and engineers or themselvesor trained operators. Designers and engineers in the 1970s rened and
expanded the command-line interace (which had begun in the 1950s)
into such industry-dening soware, as VisiCalc, the rst spreadsheet
soware, introduced in 1979, and WordStar, a popular word-processing
program introduced in 1978 (Figure 1.11).
1980s
Tis new emphasis on users came to ruition in the early 1980s with the
explosion o the graphical user interacespearheaded by Apple Computer,
rst in the Lisa (Figure 1.12) and then in the Macintoshto a mass audi-
ence. Like at Xerox PARC, the interaction design o the Lisa and Macintosh
was a group eort, eaturing designers such as Joy Mountord, Je Raskin,
and Bill Atkinson.
Te 1980s was the era o the personal computer. For the rst time, most
people working with computing devices were working with their own, and
thus had a more one-to-one relationship with one than in previous decades.1981 also saw some o the rst portable computers, such as the Osborne 1.
Te increasing memory and power o the devices a llowed or more sophis-
ticated soware such as Mitch Kapors Lotus 1-2-3 (1983).
Figure 1.11
Wrdsar and
k wr m f
r pc fcmmrca fwar
a wrn dgnd
b prgrammr
fr prgrammr.
Wrdsar dmnad
wrd prcng
mark frm
ra n 1978 n
ar 1990, wn
wa rpad b
Mcrf Wrd.
01_DFI(p3).indd 14 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
29/38
a (Very) BrIef hIstory of InteractIon DesIgn 15
Tis increasing sophistication and power was demonstrated most capably in
the surge o so-called video or arcade games. Gaming consoles such as
the Sega Genesis (1989) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)
brought unprecedented graphics and computing power to a mass audience.
Tis era also eatured game designers such as the legendary Shigeru Miya-
moto, the Father o Modern Video Games and creator o Mario, Legend
o Zelda, and Donkey Kong. Gaming provided a new set o parallel interac-
tion design paradigms that exist alongside the more traditional or pro-
essional ones or the desktop. (Mobile and touchscreen devices are other
similar parallel tracks.)
In the mid-1980s, bulletin board systems (BBSs) like Te WELL (1985) and
Prodigy (1988) sprung up so that people could leave e-mail and messages
or one another on remote computers using dial-up modems.
In the late 1980s, Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown at Xerox PARC beganputting together the rameworks and denitions or what would become
known as ubiquitous computing, or ubicomp. Its taken about two decades,
but the era o ubicomp has likely already begun (see Chapter 9).
Figure 1.12
App la wa aprcrr (f r)
Macn,
ag mr
pwrf and, n man
wa, mr advancd.
i wa, wvr, a
cmmrca far.
CouRtesyMARCiNWiC
hARy
01_DFI(p3).indd 15 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
30/38
16 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
1990s
Te era o networked computing, and the beginning o interaction designas a ormal discipline, began in earnest during the 1990s. Te World
Wide Web, which allowed anyone to easily publish hypertext documents
accessible to anyone with a modem worldwide, and the mass adoption o
e-mail, brought the need or better interaction design to the oreront. Marc
Andreessens Mosaic browser (1993) was an important piece o interaction
design, introducing such paradigms as the back button.
It is no exaggeration to state that the advent o the commercial, public Inter-
net changed the world and the relationship o humans to computing devices
and even to inormation. Te early Web was as much a sandbox or new
interactions as was the desktop a decade beore, i not more so. Te Web,along with technologies such as Adobes Flash, a llowed or experimentation
on a grand scale, and or a time, everythingincluding general controls
like scrollbars and buttonswere up or grabs. Eventually, in the late 1990s,
standards began to emerge and the Web stabilized as a platorm.
At the same time, engineers and designers began building sensors and
microprocessors, which were getting smaller, cheaper, and more powerul,
into things that werent considered computers: cars, appliances, and elec-
tronic equipment. Suddenly, these physical objects could demonstrate kinds
o behavior that they previously couldnt; they could display an awareness
o their environment and o how they were being used that was previouslyinconceivable. Cars could monitor their own engines and alert drivers to
problems beore they occurred. Stereos could adjust their settings based
on the type o music being played. Dishwashers could lengthen their wash
cycles depending on how dirty the dishes were. All these behaviors needed
to be designed and, most important, communicated to the human beings
using the objects.
Other pieces o technology acilitated interactions among people, mostly
in the entertainment space. Karaoke spread rom bars in China and Japan
to the United States (Figure 1.13). Arcade video games like Dance Dance
Revolution allowed expression in ront o crowds. Multiplayer games oncomputers and game consoles like the Sony PlayStation acilitated competi-
tion and collaboration in new ways. Online communities like EverQuest
and Te Sims Online incorporated sophisticated economies that rivaled
those o ofine countries.
01_DFI(p3).indd 16 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
31/38
a (Very) BrIef hIstory of InteractIon DesIgn 17
Mobile phones and deviceswhich had existed since the 1980senjoyed
explosive market growth in the 1990s. oday, billions o customers carry
these devices with them. Starting as simply a means o making calls on
the go, mobile phones can now contain myriad digital eatures that rival
those o desktop computers. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) got o to
a shaky start with the ailure o Apples Newton in 1995, but by the end o
the decade, they had gained traction with devices like the PalmPilot and
BlackBerry PDAs.
2000s to Present
Te turn o the millennium also coincided with the era o social soware and
the beginning o the era o ubiquitous computing. No longer did many people
have a one-to-one relationship with devices, but instead had access to many
devices able to interact with each other and the Internet over a network. By
2003, laptops had started outselling desktop systems. As o this writing (2009),
nearly as many people access the Web via a mobile device as with a traditional
desktop or laptop, and that number is likely to be surpassed shortly.
As the Internet matured, so did the technologies creating and driving it.
Since the end o the 1990s, the Internet has become less about reading con-
tent than about doing things: executing stock trades, making new (and
Figure 1.13
Ag bf jk n us,
karak macn
a rprng
rc xamp f
nracn dgn.
i prvd a wa
cmmnca
mna w
frnd.
CouRtesyistoCkPhoto
01_DFI(p3).indd 17 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
32/38
18 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
nding old) acquaintances, selling
items, manipulating live data, sharingphotos, making personal connections
between one piece o content and
another. Te Internet also provides
several new ways o communicat-
ing, among them instant messaging,
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
(Figure 1.14), and witter.
Te Internet has become a plat-
orm or applications, in much the
same way that Microso DOS oncewas, but these applications can take
advantage o the many eatures o the
Internet: collective actions like the
SEI@Home project in which people
compete to see who can nd extraterrestrial activity rst, data that is col-
lected passively rom large numbers o people as with Amazons People
who bought this also bought... eature, ar-ung social communities such
as that o online photography site Flickr, aggregation o many sources o
data in XML and RSS eeds, near real-time access to timely data like stock
quotes and news, and easy sharing o content such as blogs and Youube.
Access to the Internet, through broadband connections and wireless networks
on portable devices, is changing the types o interactions we can have and
where we can have them. Our cities and towns are becoming platorms and
data sources or geo-located services. Services themselves are being aected
by interaction design (see Products and Services later in this chapter).
Gestural interaces and touchscreen devices such as Nintendos Wii and
Apples iPhone have ushered in a new era o interaction design, where taps
on a screen or gestures in space are becoming a new set o commands or
our devices.
Teres never been a better time to be an interaction designer. Te disciplines
uture (see Chapter 9) contains both many challenges and many possibilities.
Figure 1.14
skp ak a famarparadgm, bdd
frm nan
magng, and
cp w a nw
cng, Vc
vr iP (ViP), n
rdr mak pn
ca va inrn.
01_DFI(p3).indd 18 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
33/38
a (Very) BrIef hIstory of InteractIon DesIgn 19
Marc Rettig on Interaction Designs History and FutureMarc Rettig is a designer, educator, and researcher, as well
as founder and principal of Fit Associates. He has taught
at Carnegie Mellons Graduate School of Design (where he
held the 2003 Nierenberg Distinguished Chair of Design)
and the Institute of Design, IIT, in Chicago. Marc served
as chief experience ofcer of the user experience rm
HannaHodge, and was a director of user experience at
Cambridge Technology Partners.
Wn dos isoy of inion dsign bgin?
i pck wrk a Xrx PARC n sar nrfac a a vr ar xamp f f-cnc
nracn dgn, pbcan f wc nncd r bgn wrkng n a mar
wa. A j n xamp, da f acang a prgram w a pcr wa brn r. W
ca m cn, and frg wa a brakrg cnncn bwn nrfac mn and
ndrng manng a nc wa. ta wa ar--md 1970, and sar papr ar
gra radng.
W lds v d gs inun on inion dsign?
A crrn praccd? W, fwar dvpmn and grapc dgn. t m xn,
ndra dgn. A dab f pcg and man facr. A dab f bn.
Wa i magn w nd mr f: mmakng and ar, bg, cnng and rap
( prfna a acqrng and cckng an mpac pn f vw), mab anrp-
g. And pca ngcm nw branc f ngc a nbd carvng
: ngc f dgnd nracn.
W n inion dsigns ln fom noniniv ools?
id k pn qn g b brvng a an nracn dgnr, wacng a
n am a brvng a cnvran. evrng, n a n, a np and
p. Frm a pn f vw, bndar bwn nracv and nnnracv
ar dv.
inracn dgn arg ab manng a pp agn ng and vn, and
w pp r xpr manng. s arn frm an , nracv r n, g wac
01_DFI(p3).indd 19 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
34/38
20 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
Marc Rettig on Interaction Designs History and Future(continued)
pp ng . y ar m ak . y m agn a r f rprng
nrpran ap, cr, pnng, dng, dn, and bavr. y m fa
n v w a ng a bcm gan wrn. y m cm a a ng and
c gnr , , r vn ma . And i garan wn av d mc f
bfr ncnr mn w mak a mna mappng wd nvr dram
pb. And arn frm a.
iv bn ng a k a an xamp n m f m acng, bca n n and
k ar famar , and r n nracv n a brdrn, prdcab, mcan-
ca r f wa. B nc ar xamn manng nvvd w k n ,
raz av ng a a pp wd v knw, b m dgn dn awm b ad. im gng , b i av n war n m. M war a gd mpra-
r fr a cd cca. im c. i nd b cand. And n. id v
canc ak a r nracn dgn apprac mng k a a k.
a sw Diii
Interaction design as a ormal discipline has been around or less than two
decades. Its a young eld, still dening itsel and guring out its place
among sister disciplines such as inormation architecture (IA), industrial
design (ID), visual (or graphic) design, user experience (UX) design, and
human actors. In addition, some o these other disciplines are also new
and still discovering their boundaries as well, or are radically changing to
accommodate changing design landscape. Figure 1.15 attempts to clariy
the relationships between them.
As you can see, most o the disciplines all at least partially under the
umbrella o user-experience design, the discipline o looking at all aspects
visual design, interaction design, sound design, and so ono the users
encounter with a product, and making sure they are in harmony.
01_DFI(p3).indd 20 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
35/38
a steW of DIscIplInes 21
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Content(Text, Video,
Sound)
ARCHITECTURE
INDUSTRIAL
DESIGN
INTERACTION DESIGN
VISUAL
DESIGN
INFORMATION
ARCHITECTURE
HUMAN-COMPUTER
INTERACTION
SOUND
DESIGN
HUMAN
FACTORS
Inormation architecture is concerned with the structure o content: how
to best organize and label content so that users nd the inormation they
need. Yahoo, with its dozens o labeled and categorized content areas, oers
an excellent illustration o inormation architecture. Visual design is about
creating a visual language to communicate content. Te onts, colors, and
layout o user interaces and printed materials l ike this book provide exam-
ples o visual design. Industrial design is about ormshaping objects in a
way that communicates their use while also making them unctional. Phys-
ical objects like urniture, kitchenware, and mechanical objects illustrateindustrial design. Human actors ensure our products conorm to the limi-
tations o the human body, both physically and psychologically. Human-
computer interaction is closely related to interaction design, but its methods
are more quantitative, and its methods are more those o engineering and
Figure 1.15
t dcpnrrndng
nracn dgn.
01_DFI(p3).indd 21 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
36/38
22 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
computer science than o design. Architecture concerns itsel with physical
spaces: their orm and use (program). Sound design denes a set o noises,spoken word, or music to create an aural landscape.
Its easy to see why people are conused!
Although these disciplines are separate, as the gure illustrates, they still
overlap a great deal. In act, where the disciplines overlap can be major areas
o practice, such as interace design, where visual and interaction design
meet; or navigation, where visual and interaction design meet inormation
architecture.
Te best products involve multiple disciplines working in harmony. What is
a laptop computer except a blend o the ruits o many o these disciplines?Separating them can be nearly impossible.
Youll also notice that many o these disciplines have parts that lie outside
the user experience realm. Tis is because many o these disciplines have
tasks that have to do with getting their designs produced, developed, and
built, and those tasks may have little to do with what the user experiences.
It is also important to note that not every organization needs a specialist
working in each discipline; within an organization, one person, who might
be called anything rom an inormation architect to a user-interace engi-
neer, canand probably willshi back and orth as needs require. Its the
role that is important, not the title. Te imagineer at Disney might do ajob similar to that o the user-interace architect at a startup company.
01_DFI(p3).indd 22 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
37/38
a steW of DIscIplInes 23
The Company
Mcrf, wrd arg fwar cmpan.
The Problem
in ar 2000, wa car man nd Mcrf a mng ad b dn ab
r b-ng, nar bq fwar Mcrf ofc. t rgna nracn and
nrfac dgn, crad a dcad bfr, wa n cang w. Nw far wr bng ddn
b nrfac, and vn far r ad rqd and ad bn p n nw vrn
f prdc cdn b fnd b vr am r. t fwar appard bad,
nfcn, and nwd. Fr xamp, 50 mn m and 2 bar frm Mcrf Wrd 1.0
ad band 260 mn m and vr 30 bar b Wrd 2003.
Case Study: Microsoft Ofce 2007
01_DFI(p3).indd 23 7/13/09 10:09:
8/8/2019 Designing for Interaction 2nd Edition (Sample)
38/38
24 chapter 1 What Is InteractIon DesIgn?
The Process
t Mcrf dgn am ard b anazng annm daa ccd ab w pp
wr ng ofc 2003. t kd fr w mpran ng: drab far w w
ag nmbr (wc man pp cdn nd m) and frqn-d far a
wr ard g (wc man pp ra wand m). t fcd n dgn
prncp ( Capr 6) u f a bradr f and dd vra ar f rav
prpng cm p w a nw f nracn dgn paradgm fr r.
The Solution
Mcrf ofc 2007 a ra 1000 nancmn , a f wc ak p crn
pac an prv vrn. on man (and cnrvra) ui cang wa Rbbn
(pcrd), wc cr pc f fncna a p f crn n arg, a--
cck arg. Anr nnvan wa knwn a Mnbar, wc appard nar bjc
a wr ggd and awd r qck mdf cn w avng
dd w mn r Rbbn. t nw dgn a bn a b-r, and adn fr
rvw n New York Times rad Frm Bad sk.
Case Study: Microsoft Ofce 2007 (continued)