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Interaction design Steampunking interaction designA kind of out-of-place and out-of-time way of designing. "Contemporary Steampunk culture owes much to the Internet and the communities of practice that have arisen online to share techniques, post tutorials, debate principles, and generally create an ecosystem that supports and celebrates improvisation, exploration, experimentation, and bricolage." (Joshua Tanenbaum, Audrey Desjardins, Karen Tanenbaum ~ ACM Interactions May/June 2013) Posted on April 25, 2013 | Permalink Jack of all trades, master of none: Danger for interaction designWondering why it's 'User Experience' but Interaction Design. "Interaction design is a young field. At least, that's what we as interaction designers keep telling ourselves. And of course, in comparison to many other fields we are respectfully young. But I get the feeling that we use it more as an excuse to permit ourselves to have an unclear definition of who we are - and who we aren't." Posted on February 26, 2013 | Permalink The grammar of interactivityLike all (visual) languages, digital has its own version of morphology, syntaxis, and semantics to communicate with humans. Grammar included. "User experience design calls for us to write words on buttons all the time - but how do we know whether we're choosing the right ones? Linguistics may provide a clue. What follows is a simple test to check whether your calls to action 'work' linguistically as well as a guide to consider the grammar of your experience elements." (Jonathan Richards a.k.a. @jonnyrichards ~ UX Booth) Posted on February 18, 2013 | Permalink Media studies, mobile augmented reality, and interaction designIntegrating, relating, and syncing multiple important fields of practice and disciples always results into something interesting. "McLuhan's idea is compelling, but media aesthetics is not as simple and singular as McLuhan suggests. It is not simply that technology changes and extends our perceptual systems, because we are not passive in this process. As individuals and as a whole culture, we create new technological forms and designs that define new relationships between us and our environment. There is a feedback loop in which our view of the world changes our designs, and our use of new artifacts and designs changes how we perceive the world. If we take a historical view, we can see these feedback processes at work. Media studies can then contribute to aesthetic design, which we can define as the practice of reconfiguring the way the user perceives her environment through technology." (Jay Bolter, Maria Engberg, and Blair MacIntyre ~ ACM Interactions Jan/Feb 2013) Posted on January 07, 2013 | Permalink When You Shouldn't Use Fitts's Law To Measure User ExperienceFitts' law is a principle for UI design; not an evaluation method for UX. "The key statement of Fitts's Law is that the time required to move a pointing device to a target is a function of the distance to the target and its size. In layman's terms: the closer and larger a target, the faster it is to click on that target. This is easy to understand, not too difficult to implement and it doesn't seem to make much sense to contradict such a simple and obvious statement." (Anastasios Karafillis ~ Smashing Magazine) Posted on December 05, 2012 | Permalink Collecting Payment Information Within a Single InputMicro-design for the best payment experience. "For years the advice for mobile designers has been to avoid text input. Screens are small, fingers are imprecise, and so errors happen. But at the same time mobile devices are always with us, always on, and always connected. So instead of trying to limit input we should be encouraging it and taking steps to ensure it's easy to provide accurately. Enter input masks." (Luke Wroblewski a.k.a. @LukeW) Posted on November 28, 2012 | Permalink Designing Life-Changing SolutionsDesign of digital stuff changes everybody's lives. Deal with it. "The boundaries between design and psychology are progressively blurring. With designers increasingly facing high stakes challenges and more psychologists jumping off the academic pedestal to get their hands dirty with real people in real contexts, the two disciplines are more intertwined than ever before." (Giorgio Baresi a.k.a. @giorgiobaresi ~ design mind Frog Design) ~ courtesy of fabiosergio Posted on November 27, 2012 | Permalink It's Time for the UX Community to Toughen UpScreaming and kicking into the new phase. "We, the UX crowd, are the new brand leads. We are the ones who will win battles and wars in customer perception and preference. Advertising leaves an impression, but digital interaction creates an immediate emotional state through functional creations." (Andrew Heaton ~ Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on October 09, 2012 | Permalink Bill Moggridge 1943-2012Paying tribute to one of our founding fathers. "A tribute to esteemed museum director Bill Moggridge, who passed away on September 8, 2012 following a battle with cancer. Hear about his pioneering work and influence in the field of design from Tim Brown and David Kelley of IDEO, Bernie Roth of Stanford University and Caroline Baumann and Cara McCarty of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum." (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum) Posted on September 10, 2012 | Permalink Interaction with Big Data AnalyticsBig data needs big design for big experiences. "Here we have described big data analytics as an emerging type of knowledge work, with plenty of opportunities for study and productivity improvements. However, even for those who are not interested in this form of knowledge work, big data analytics cannot be ignored: It's an important new avenue to learn about how people interact with computing." (Danyel Fisher, Rob DeLine, Mary Czerwinski, Steven Drucker ~ ACM Interactions) Posted on June 01, 2012 | Permalink Interaction as PerformanceTheatre, method acting and stage performance are great metaphors, inspirations and analogies for digital product experiences. "Our overall goal is to lay the foundations for a 'dramaturgy of performance' by establishing a framework of concepts—a language, if you like—to help express the different ways in which computers can be embedded into performative experiences. We intend this framework to guide practitioners and researchers who are entering the field of artistic, performance, and cultural applications of computing. However, we also aim to stimulate wider thinking in HCI in general around the changing nature of the extended user experience and the new challenges this raises." (Steve Benford and Gabriella Giannachi ~ ACM Interactions) Posted on June 01, 2012 | Permalink Is your organization design ready?The idea remains: UX is an organizational challenge, not a design one. "Let's presume for the moment that interaction design can be perfected and delivered to your organization in a tidy, shiny bundle of brilliance. Have you now got a magic talisman that will protect you from competition and summon market share? Of course not. Design is just the beginning." (Chris Noessel a.k.a. @chrisnoessel ~ Cooper Journal) ~ courtesy of willemijnprins Posted on March 26, 2012 | Permalink The Myth of Interaction DesignA professional identity is not something you get instantly. You have to work for it and grow. "(...) we can make ourselves part of the solution. The first step in doing so is to take a minute, stop and think. We need to, at a minimum, take the time to understand human capabilities. That is really what user research is all about." (Elisabeth Hubert a.k.a. @lishubert) Posted on March 14, 2012 | Permalink Rage Against the Machines: A Keynote by Genevieve BellAnd they are not Luddites. "Today technological devices have become so much a part of our lives that we need them alive or dead. Bell closes by challenging designers to rebalance the users relationship with technology by approaching each project through designing relationships and not interactions." (Ciara Michelle Taylor ~ Core77) Posted on February 23, 2012 | Permalink My Interaction12 Recap: As long as it's gotta beIxDA 2012 as a thriven, inspiring and interesting event. "The Interaction conference platform is the most visible and energetic of all the organization's endeavors thus far, even though just a tiny percentage of IxDA members are able to attend in person. This year, even as IxD12 attendance grew to 750 people, that percentage diminishes because the organization now counts somewhere around 35,000 members in its digital forums, with over 100 local groups operating in cities around the globe. Only about 40% of the attendees came from North America this year, with over 32 countries represented." (Elisabeth Bacon a.k.a. @ebacon ~ Devise) Posted on February 15, 2012 | Permalink State of Interaction Design: DivergingLike any other practice, through time professionals gravitate towards different epicentres of expertise. "Interaction Design is reaching a critical point in its history. We have spent the better part of the last half century converging. We have built our entire identity by bringing in other disciplines and practices into our fold. We are often decried as 'land grabbers', but I say it is more about shoring up our knowledge base and practice so that we can be ready for the ever-increasing complexity of the tasks set before us through our acknowledged focus on human behavior as it relates broadly to the interaction of systems." (David Malouf a.k.a. @daveixd ~ Core77) Posted on January 24, 2012 | Permalink Defining an Interaction Model: The Cornerstone of Application DesignOr, on the value of working with models. Of any kind. "An interaction model is a design model that binds an application together in a way that supports the conceptual models of its target users. It is the glue that holds an application together. It defines how all of the objects and actions that are part of an application interrelate, in ways that mirror and support real-life user interactions. It ensures that users always stay oriented and understand how to move from place to place to find information or perform tasks. It provides a common vision for an application. It enables designers, developers, and stakeholders to understand and explain how users move from objects to actions within a system. It is like a cypher or secret decoder ring: Once you understand the interaction model, once you see the pattern, everything makes sense. Defining the right interaction model is a foundational requirement for any digital system and contributes to a cohesive, overall UX architecture." (Jim Nieters ~ UXmatters) Posted on January 23, 2012 | Permalink Affective Computing, Affective Interaction and Technology as ExperienceTechnology moving into the fibers of our emotions. "As Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design moved from designing and evaluating work-oriented applications towards dealing with leisure-oriented applications, such as games, social computing, art, and tools for creativity, we have had to consider e.g. what constitutes an experience, how to deal with users' emotions, and understanding aesthetic practices and experiences. Here I will provide a short account of why in particular emotion became one such important strand of work in our field." (Kristina Höök a.k.a. @ProfessorHook ~ Interaction-Design.org) Posted on January 13, 2012 | Permalink Service Design, Interaction Design & Design ThinkingDTDT no. N. "If design be seen as the integration of art and science, or applied arts, it can be broken into several distinct, but closely-integrated components. One of these is craft, and the tangibility of design - as a means of both exploring and communicating a concept." (Steve Baty a.k.a. @docbaty) Posted on January 12, 2012 | Permalink Does Culture Matter for Product Design?This is not a variant of Catholic math, Buddhist chemistry or Protestant engineering. "Note that the arguments of this essay are specifically relevant to industrial and interaction designers. So even were one to accept that the impact of culture upon mass-produced products is minimal, other areas of design are apt to be far more sensitive to culture. Because social interaction is still the major source of cultural variation, I would expect service design to vary considerably from culture to culture. As social networks pervade the communication and internet space, they too will vary with culture. Other areas of design will have their own special sensitivities to culture." (Donald A. Norman a.k.a. @jnd1er ~ Core 77) Posted on January 10, 2012 | Permalink Philosophy of Interaction and the Interactive User ExperienceFinally, a piece on interaction design with more deep thoughts than normal. "I will approach the question of interactivity from a number of angles, in the belief that a multi-paradigmatic analysis is necessary to give justice to the complexity of the phenomenon. I will start by defining the scope through some examples of interactive products and services. Next, I will analyse interactivity and the interactive user experience from a number of perspectives, including formal logic, cognitive science, phenomenology, and media and art studies. A number of other perspectives, e.g. ethnomethodology, semiotics, and activity theory, are highly relevant, but are not included here." (Dag Svanaes ~ Interaction-Design.org) Posted on December 13, 2011 | Permalink The upper bounds to qualityAAPL seems to falsify this. People willing to pay high prices for superb quality. "The digital age changes our notions of quality, and in particular, our notions of the limits to quality. Generally, there are two limits to quality: The first limit is your imagination. If you are innovative, you can increase quality in many creative ways. The second limit to quality is what the customer will pay for. If your product is priced too high, even if it is of super high quality, you won't be able to sell many." (Alan Cooper a.k.a. @MrAlanCooper ~ Cooper Journal) Posted on November 25, 2011 | Permalink The Design and Display of Simple Interactions on Mobile DevicesAre we re-inventing everything now it's mobile? "Users visit mobile sites not only to consume content, but to get things done. Let's take air travel as an example: tasks that users often find themselves performing on an airline company's mobile site include checking flight status, checking in for a particular flight, and searching for and booking a flight. How does mobile user interface design support task completion? What are the optimal ways of communicating and displaying interactions on mobile sites? With the aim of discovering optimal ways of designing simple interactions on mobile devices, I examined the task of checking flight status. I'm hoping that my analysis sheds some light on this topic." (Shanshan Ma a.k.a. @shanshanma ~ UXmatters) Posted on November 21, 2011 | Permalink Goal Driven Design DecisionsGoals are achieved when certain events occur. But what are the events? In all other cases, it's not a goal but an intention, motivation or just a task. "There are a lot of theories about what drives people and how they move through life. It's my belief that on a subconscious level we are goal driven creatures. There is nothing people do that can not be defined as a goal. From this starting point I designed a simple model that can help us as designers make the decisions where to focus on in the design process." (Jeroen van Geel a.k.a. @jeroenvangeel ~ Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on November 17, 2011 | Permalink A Brief Rant on The Future of Interaction DesignCouldn't deny the proper framing of 'Pictures Under Glass'. "As it happens, designing Future Interfaces For The Future used to be my line of work. I had the opportunity to design with real working prototypes, not green screens and After Effects, so there certainly are some interactions in the video which I'm a little skeptical of, given that I've actually tried them and the animators presumably haven't. But that's not my problem with the video. My problem is the opposite, really — this vision, from an interaction perspective, is not visionary. It's a timid increment from the status quo, and the status quo, from an interaction perspective, is actually rather terrible. This matters, because visions matter. Visions give people a direction and inspire people to act, and a group of inspired people is the most powerful force in the world. If you're a young person setting off to realize a vision, or an old person setting off to fund one, I really want it to be something worthwhile. Something that genuinely improves how we interact. This little rant isn't going to lay out any grand vision or anything. I just hope to suggest some places to look." (Bret Victor a.k.a. @worrydream ~ WorryDream) Posted on November 14, 2011 | Permalink CraftsmanshipKnow your computer design materials in and out: content, code, connectivity, and computation. "(...) craftsmanship comes through intimate understanding of medium and material. The medium of painting is fairly obvious, as is the material of clay. But both the medium and materiality of service design, interaction design, and public policy are vague, abstract, and seemingly invisible. They are, however, not without definition. (...) one of the most fundamental failings of design thinking education is the lack of craftsmanship." Posted on November 10, 2011 | Permalink The Ten Principles of Interaction DesignDevs get their principles on (interaction) design. "I got my start as an interaction designer during the first internet bubble. Since then I've worked on interactive marketing and products for everything including finance, automotive, electronics, packaged consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. In that time and experience I have come to know that there are a few key things that make good interaction designs and designers. Here are 10 of them." (Chad Vavra a.k.a. @chadvavra ~ .net magazine) Posted on October 20, 2011 | Permalink Designing to overcome behaviour barriersAlways doubt if behaviour is the real thing, except buying something. Thoughts are more important. "People are creatures of habit and this can introduce challenges should you want them to adopt a new behaviour. We all start forming and evolving our behaviours from the time we are born, and each of us will respond to different stimuli in our own unique way. Some of us can't start their day without our morning coffee whereas others will reach for a cigarette as a first port of call. Some can't fall asleep without a book in their hands and others like to leave their T.V. switched on. These behavioural differences are a big part of what makes us human." (Caroline Jones a.k.a. @caroline_maree ~ Optimal Usability) Posted on October 05, 2011 | Permalink What I Bring to UX From... ArchitectureSounds more like information architecture, projects and clients to me. "To do well in either architecture or user experience design, the ability to communicate well is key, and the most important part of communicating is listening. As designers, we need to listen to our clients and their customers to understand their needs and requirements. We need to communicate our designs to both our clients and our development teams in a way that they will understand. Our ideas need to be translated into designs and made concrete, through user scenarios, workflow diagrams, mock-ups or wireframes so that they can be discussed, understood, tested and improved upon. Communication becomes even more important once those designs start being built. As I already stated, nothing ever gets built as planned. Therefore, communication is key in working with the development team to evolve and refine the design as it gets built, and to manage the expectations of the client throughout the development process as those changes are occurring. And, a lot of that communicating is listening." (Jennifer Fraser a.k.a. @jlfraser ~ Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on September 30, 2011 | Permalink Videos from Device Design Day 2011After two instantiations, it looks like it's going to be a tradition. "Kicker Studio marked our 3rd Anniversary on August 8, 2011. To celebrate, we hosted the Second Annual Device Design Day at the San Francisco Art Institute, Jody's alma matter. It was a great success thanks to inspiring speakers and involved attendees. Couldn't make it? Don't worry, we've posted videos of the talks for you to share and enjoy. And be sure to join us next year for our 3rd Device Design Day." Posted on September 15, 2011 | Permalink Interaction Design Tactics For Visual DesignersIt keeps coming back to the idea of 'know the material you work with'. "Interaction design is a multi-faceted discipline that links static communications together to form an experience. Understanding the basic principles of this discipline is core to designing websites that are not only aesthetically pleasing but that actually solve business problems and bring delight to their users. This article just scratches the surface of interaction design. For Web designers of any kind, considering these fundamentals when designing any transaction or interaction is imperative." (Jeff Gothelf a.k.a. @jboogie ~ Smashing Magazine) Posted on September 12, 2011 | Permalink The Interaction Design of APIsGreat to see UX disciplines applied to geek technology. "Alex Payne explores the interaction design of APIs, particularly through the lens of the speaker's experience evolving the popular Twitter API. The speaker argues for the notion of a "humane" API", one derived from simplicity, "explorability" and consistency. Alex Payne is API Lead at Twitter, Inc., a communications service used by millions to share short messages." Posted on September 05, 2011 | Permalink Lost in translation: Bridging the gap between interaction and visual designInteraction design deals with the behavorial dimension; visual design with the perceptual dimension of the user. "Interaction designers and visual designers bring something different yet complementary to the table. If you can combine these in a pragmatic way it will enhance the final result and perhaps drive better innovation." (Adeline Salkeld-Blears a.k.a. @webdesigngirl ~ OptimalUsability) Posted on August 25, 2011 | Permalink Five Essential Principles of Interaction DesignAdobe now moves into interaction design. Can't wait for their classes on UX, IA or CS. "Understand what interaction design is and how the five essential principals of interaction design could help you make better interaction design decisions. This quick introduction will help you get started thinking about how to design your interfaces in the most effective way with the behavior of the user in mind." (Adobe TV) Posted on July 18, 2011 | Permalink Motors and Music: Explorations of tangible interactionNice keynote presentation by Mister Sketch with some remarkable projects from CIID. "Human-computer interaction is spreading into everyday objects like phones, cars, toys, books and instruments. Many interactions are implicit (the door 'does the right thing' when I approach); others are more 'explicit' (I push it). How do you know what the door is doing (e.g. 'not allowed')? Can you control it more expressively (e.g. 'fling'). If the door has a motor in it; can we 'feel' the force/motion/inertia/reluctance? Music and musical performance are a challenge to HCI. Some of the best performances require precise expressive motions. I will describe experiments which use active force feedback (haptics) in the design of musical controllers. There are lessons for a broad range of interaction designers." (Bill Verplank ~ Chi Sparks 2011 videos) Posted on July 18, 2011 | Permalink How Print Design is the Future of Interaction"There are three areas that I covered in the talk. First, how the visual language of UI has evolved and been shaped in to what we find in the interfaces we are familiar with today. Second, I'll discuss why I think a new approach to the visual design of interfaces, influenced by Print Design, is emerging and necessary. And finally, why I think Print Design is an important influence to the next evolution of UI, and what we (as UI and Interaction Designers) can learn from the discipline of Print." (Mike Kruzeniski a.k.a. @mkruzeniski) Posted on July 01, 2011 | Permalink Understanding Our Interaction Design History"It's great that we're starting to make the history of digital technology available, but I believe we should also be doing the same for interaction design. We need to understand the history of digital design on screens and how it has changed. It's not because the basic interaction design principles change over time, because they haven't. The principles we introduced in the CHI course - prominence, relationship, flow, clarity, simplicity and consistency - were just as relevant 25 years ago, they probably just had different names. No, the history matters because how we apply those principles has changed as our technology changed." (David Rondeau a.k.a. @dbrondeau ~ InContext) Posted on June 01, 2011 | Permalink The Buxton Collection"Over the past 30 years, designer, writer, and researcher Bill Buxton has been collecting input and interactive devices whose design struck him as interesting, useful, or important. In the process, he has assembled a good collection of the history of pen computing, pointing devices, touch technologies, as well as an illustration of the nature of how new technologies emerge." (About TBC) Posted on May 10, 2011 | Permalink The Theory Behind Social Interaction Design"Via this article, I would like to give you the big picture introduction to the theory behind social interaction design. Many of my articles on this topic are anchored in social theory but don't make explicit reference to it, so I thought an overview might be in order." (Adrian Chan ~ Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on April 28, 2011 | Permalink How Print Design is the Future of Interaction"There are three areas that I covered in the talk. First, how the visual language of UI has evolved and been shaped in to what we find in the interfaces we are familiar with today. Second, I'll discuss why I think a new approach to the visual design of interfaces, influenced by Print Design, is emerging and necessary. And finally, why I think Print Design is an important influence to the next evolution of UI, and what we (as UI and Interaction Designers) can learn from the discipline of Print." (Mike Kruzeniski) Posted on April 18, 2011 | Permalink Motion and The Clay of Interaction Design"I am in constant pursuit of the 'clay' of interaction design. Even if that clay is intangible, if we are to consider ourselves a true design discipline there must be something that we are manipulating. Once we understand what it is that we are manipulating we will be better able to communicate to all our stakeholders the intentions of what it is the interaction designer designs. One possible property of said “clay” may be motion or movement.For almost all interactions we place our body in motion. Even speaking requires muscles to move in order to work. There has been a ton of work done on motion as an aesthetic quality towards an audience, even if that audience is just perceived. What I’m interested in is motion as an aesthetic regardless of perceived or real audience. The question I ask is if certain movements just feel better than others at an aesthetic level and further that perception is manipulated by other interacting factors." (David Malouf ~ Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on March 23, 2011 | Permalink My So Called Service Design Life"There is a fierce debate about the relationship between service design (SD) and interaction design (IxD) here in the United States, particularly among interaction designers. The discussion often devolves into hostile crossfire between two camps: one that believes that the service design is a type of interaction design, and another that believes that the two disciplines are separate and distinct. When a teenager is a smart, compelling, interesting, independent, charismatic, hardworking, analytical, talented, humorous, knock-kneed being, a parent would rightly feel a great sense of pride. Interaction designers — and those whose careers, and sources of income are indebted to that practice — have very good reasons to hold strongly to the idea that service design is indeed a chip off the old block." (Renna Al Yassini ~ Cooper Journal) Posted on March 09, 2011 | Permalink Open vs. Closed Prototypes"An open prototype is one that involves the user in a direct way. It is typically something you could hand over to a user. (...) A closed prototype is an experience that users watch, but won't interact with directly. The lack of direct user interaction can make it harder to learn from a closed prototype." (Tom Maiorana ~ d.news) Posted on March 01, 2011 | Permalink Interaction Eleven: Bruce Sterling Closing Keynote"Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic, was born in 1954. Best known for his ten science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns, and introductions for books ranging from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne." (IxDA - videos) Posted on March 01, 2011 | Permalink Interaction Eleven: Bill Verplank Opening Keynote"Bill Verplank is a human-factors engineer with a long career in design, research and education. As a fresh ME PhD from MIT he worked eight years at Xerox on the testing and refinement of what we now call the 'desktop metaphor': bit-map graphics, keyboard and mouse, direct manipulation. For six years, he worked with Bill Moggridge at IDTwo and IDEO doing 'interaction design' - bringing the insights from computers to the industrial design of medical instruments, GPS navigation, mobile phones, and new input devices (keyboards, track-balls, mice). From IDEO, he moved to Interval Research for 8 years of innovating design methods (observation, body-storming, scenarios, metaphors) and researching active force-feedback ('haptics'). (...) He is known for sketching as he talks." (IxDA - videos) Posted on March 01, 2011 | Permalink Mobile Design Patterns: Interaction Models"A model describing the method of user interaction with a device and its UI. Mobile devices typically use one of two models—direct or indirect manipulation. More recently, devices have been designed which also respond to gestural interactions." (Forum Nokia) Posted on February 22, 2011 | Permalink Interaction Design Association in Europe"Throughout Europe, the dialogue on Interaction Design in academia and business is pursued from many different angles, nurtured by the region’s great diversity of national identities and socio-economic conditions. To allow IxDA to effectively utilize those kinds of regional premises, the global organization has assigned Coordinators for the worlds main geographical areas. In Europe, the Regional Coordination promotes to embrace the areas diversity and encourages cross-national collaboration amongst its chapters to facilitate a broad and manifold dialogue on Interaction Design." (IxDA European Region) Posted on February 14, 2011 | Permalink User Experience and Experience Design"The notion of (User) Experience as stories told through products has a potential to change the way we think and design. At the moment, the majority of commercially available interactive devices is either too practical or too open-ended." (Marc Hassenzahl ~ Interaction-Design.org Encyclopedia) Posted on February 01, 2011 | Permalink Passive magic, design of delightful experience"It is noteworthy when the design of an experience is so compelling that you feel wonder and delight. When designed right it feels totally natural, some might even say it is truly 'intuitive'. No training is needed, no set-up, no break in flow, the tool fits seamlessly, improving without disrupting your experience; it's like a little bit of magic." (Stefan Klocek ~ Cooper Journal) Posted on January 26, 2011 | Permalink TEI 2011 Keynote: Bounce Back by Gilian Crampton Smith"Overall the argument was that embodied interaction works because it draws on knowledge we have. An example is that two physical things cannot be in exactly the same place and another one is that things stay where they are if there is no force moving them. There are clear limitations to the interaction with physical objects that give indications how to use it; she referenced a paper on an exploration of physical manipulation." (Albrecht Schmidt - User Interface Engineering) Posted on January 25, 2011 | Permalink The Metaphor of the System (Part 2)"When considering the structure of a building, architects often define its central, organizing idea as part of their ideation and design process. This unifying idea is known as the parti. The overall expression and movement of people through the space, the actual flow that happens through daily use, emanates from and returns to this fundamental idea." (David Sherwin ~ ChangeOrder) Also, part 1 Posted on January 24, 2011 | Permalink The A-B-C of Behaviour"We all seem to be talking about changing behaviour through good design... but changing behaviour is actually really hard. Working as a psychologist in a detox unit at the start of my career has admittedly shaped my view of what it takes to change someone’s behaviour; and whilst I learnt it certainly isn't impossible, it often takes time." (@jodiemoule ~ Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on January 24, 2011 | Permalink UX, It's Time to Grow Up"(...) one of the main issues that we see, but at times ignore, in this field is that most of us try to be jacks of all trades within UX." (Elisabeth Hubert) Posted on January 20, 2011 | Permalink The Essence of Interaction Design (Part I): Designing Virtual Contexts for Interaction"With this column, I'm introducing a multipart series on what I consider to be the essence of interaction design for application user experiences. First, I'll lay the groundwork for this series by describing the role of interaction design, then I'll embark on my exploration of the essence of interaction design by discussing the design of virtual contexts for interaction." (Pabini Gabriel-Petit ~ UXmatters) Posted on January 05, 2011 | Permalink An interview with Bill Verplank"Back in the late 1980s, Bill Verplank, when working at what would become IDEO, stopped calling what he did 'user-interface design', and instead coined a new term: 'interaction design'. His work over the years has included Xerox Parc, IDTwo/IDEO, and collaborations with design schools such as the RCA, MIT and Carnegie Mellon. Steve Baty talked with him about interaction design." (Steve Baty ~ Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on December 16, 2010 | Permalink Designing Media"In Designing Media, Bill Moggridge examines connections and conflicts between old and new media, describing how the MSM ('MainStream Media') have changed and how new patterns of media consumption are emerging. The book features interviews with thirty-seven people who have made significant creative contributions to the design and development of media, ranging from the publisher of the New York Times to the founder of Twitter. (...) You can download any or all of the Chapters here as pdfs, and the videos as QuickTimes. The videos are sized at 1024 pixels width, so that they fit a standard slide format in PowerPoint or Keynote." (Bill Moggridge) courtesy of markvanderbeeken Posted on December 01, 2010 | Permalink Information as a Material"This talk will discuss what it means to treat information as a material, the properties of information as a design material, the possibilities created by information as a design material, and approaches for designing with information. Information as a material enables The Internet of Things, object-oriented hardware, smart materials, ubiquitous computing, and intelligent environments." (Mike Kuniavsky ~ Kicker Studio D3) Posted on October 11, 2010 | Permalink The IxD Library: A collection of materials related to interaction design"(...) a collection of books, articles, and presentations of interest to interaction designers. It attempts to not be the definitive collection of every piece of content about interaction design, only the best and most influential. It is also strictly (as is possible) about interaction design and not usability, information architecture, visual design, human factors, or even general experience design, although certainly all of those fields affect and exist alongside interaction design in the field." (About) Posted on October 07, 2010 | Permalink Making it suck"Making conventional interactions suck seems counter-intuitive and cruel. But there are plethora of products and services that aim to suck at common expectations for good reason. Among the many possibilities, things that suck can lead to strength, fun, good business and can introduce friction to prevent improper usage." (Cooper Journal) Posted on October 07, 2010 | Permalink So You Wanna Build a Library, Eh?The Big Questions to Ask Before Building a Pattern or Component Library ~ "Design patterns and modular components are effective techniques for designing and building long-lasting, consistent experiences." (Nathan Curtis ~ Boxes and Arrows) Posted on September 14, 2010 | Permalink UX design framework: Interaction"Undoubtedly, interaction design is a design discipline that has become a defining element of UX. Though the preceding two quotes assert the alignment with a user's behaviour they do so here in relation to their interaction (the person and the artifact). In other words, it is the behaviour of the object in relation to the user. The following principles reassert this notion that many interaction design issues are born out of preconceptions of what a user expects to be able to do with the interface they are presented with." (User Pathways) Posted on September 05, 2010 | Permalink Designing Behavior in Interaction: Using Aesthetic Experience as a Mechanism for Design"As design moves into the realm of intelligent products and systems, interactive product behavior becomes an ever more prominent aspect of design, raising the question of how to design the aesthetics of such interactive behavior. To address this challenge, we developed a conception of aesthetics based on Pragmatist philosophy and translated it into a design approach. Our notion of Aesthetic Interaction consists of four principles: Aesthetic Interaction (1) has practical use next to intrinsic value, (2) has social and ethical dimensions, (3) has satisfying dynamic form, and (4) actively involves people's bodily, cognitive, emotional and social skills. Our design approach based on this notion is called 'designing for Aesthetic Interaction through Aesthetic Interaction', referring to the use of aesthetic experience as a design mechanism. We explore our design approach through a case study that involves the design of intelligent lamps and outlines the utilized design techniques. The paper concludes with a set of practical recommendations for designing the aesthetics of interactive product behavior." (Ross, P. R. & Wensveen, S. A. G. ~ International Journal of Design 4.2) Posted on August 31, 2010 | Permalink Jodi Forlizzi on Service Design"Interaction design encompasses human interaction with objects, people, environments and systems. It's not a widely held perspective outside of the Pittsburgh diaspora." (Jeff Howard ~ Design for Service) Posted on August 26, 2010 | Permalink Six Questions from Kicker: Kim Goodwin"It wasn’t when I got my first job as a designer, I felt I had to achieve some degree of skill before I deserved the label. I'm not even sure where I had set that internal bar, but it took at least a couple of years. The beauty of interaction design being a relatively new profession is that it’s been easy for people to get into the field. The problem with interaction design being a relatively new profession is the same thing…there are lots of people with the job title who have great intentions and no idea what they're doing. This can affect perceptions of the profession as a whole, which is one of many reasons I think it's important to evangelize good techniques." (Kicker Studio) Posted on July 13, 2010 | Permalink My Heart is in The Work"In 1900, Andrew Carnegie quietly declared that his 'heart is in the work' – that he had found an endeavor worth pursuing, and that he would passionately follow-through on that endeavor until it was complete. We interaction designers feel that passion on a daily basis, as we’ve found ourselves at the heart of industry, policy, and culture. Our endeavors are worth pursuing and we approach them with the whole of our hearts. We build the artifacts and frameworks that support engagement, that keep us entertained, aroused, engaged and productive. We are building the culture we live in, and we possess the capability to enable massive change in an increasingly fragmented and tense world. This talk will examine our ability to affect change at the intersection of experience, behavior, meaning, and culture, and will emphasize our responsibility to approach our work with philanthropic enthusiasm that would make Carnegie proud." (Jon Kolko - IxDA) Posted on July 01, 2010 | Permalink The Problem with Great Ideas"Even great ideas have a limited shelf life. Bill Buxton has some stern words of advice for those looking to rest on their laurels." (Business Week) Posted on June 10, 2010 | Permalink interactions: Business, Culture, and Society"Our cover story puts an explicit emphasis on what has been an implicit theme of interactions over the past two years: the desire to improve the world around us through interaction design." (Jon Koiko - interactions XVII.3) Posted on April 26, 2010 | Permalink Industry trends in prototyping"Prototypes are meant to be a cost-effective way of experimenting with ideas. They are generally considered part of the pre-planning phase, rather than part of the construction or manufacturing process that results in the final product—although obviously the discoveries made during the process of prototyping should ultimately both inform and shape the construction process." (Dave Cronin ~ Cooper) Posted on April 20, 2010 | Permalink Common Ground"In the modern, agile world, programmers defend themselves against changing requirements by showing customers the program as often as possible, and by being able to make rapid changes to suit the customers expressed needs. Interaction designers defend themselves against uncooperative programmers by doing ever more detailed design and documenting it with greater accuracy, detail, and precision." (Alan Cooper) Posted on March 31, 2010 | Permalink Taming Goliath: Selling UX to Large Companies 2/2"Collaborating effectively can be difficult for large companies. Projects can involve multiple locations, people, systems, and other outside companies. Large companies also tend to be departmental rather than project-focused, and this can hinder working together. But, being able to bring people together is key to delivering successful sites for large companies. Here are some tools and techniques to improve collaboration on projects." (Alan Colville - UX Booth) Posted on March 30, 2010 | Permalink Fred Wilson’s 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps"In February 2010 Fred Wilson, a New York based tech investor, spoke at the annual Future of Web Apps Miami conference. His talk, clocking in at just under 30 minutes, looks at his top 10 principles for creating a successful web app. A full transcript is available too." (Keir Whitaker - Think Vitamin) Posted on March 30, 2010 | Permalink Interaction10: How to Design an Experience for Experience Designers?"Collaborating with a large team of designers, who all worked as volunteers, we decided to approach the conference experience as designers creating a service, taking every aspect of the experience into account. We thought through the lifecycle of the event, in light of the needs and motivations of the 600+ participants at the event, in their various roles from attendees and speakers to sponsors, volunteers, and conference staff. We used our empathy as designers to imagine what was important to each user at each stage of the experience. And while not everything worked out exactly as we planned, based on feedback, I think conference was a success. Here are a few things we learned along the way." (Jennifer Bove - Fast Company) Posted on March 26, 2010 | Permalink Web App Masters: Designing for Interesting Moments"In his Designing for Interesting Moments presentation at the Web App Masters Tour in San Diego, CA, Bill Scott outlined several rich interaction design principles and showed them in action within several Web applications." (the notes of LukeW) Posted on March 25, 2010 | Permalink Content: Not Always King"The strategy you adopt when tackling a project needs to take this continuum in mind. If your product is about content consumption, content is king and you should do due diligence and start from a content strategy perspective. Users of those products are coming to be informed or entertained and need the content to be front-and-center; the product is in service to displaying the content in as appropriate a manner as possible. The meaning of the content matters; you wouldn't display a cartoon the same way you’d display an analysis of the stock market. At least, not usually." (Dan Saffer - Kicker Studio) - Goes back to the old web app (code) versus doc (data) distinction. Posted on March 22, 2010 | Permalink Designing for Awareness at SXSWi"Interaction designers talk a lot about a user’s emotional experience, but they understand very little about what motivates people to engage. How can designers understand triggers (signals, facilitators, and sparks) that help to change people’s behavior? frog VP of Creative Robert Fabricant investigates." (Robert Fabricant - frogdesign) Posted on March 22, 2010 | Permalink The Craft of Interaction Design"I've been involved in developing what I would say is the craft of interaction design. A craft is a way of working that you develop entirely through experience without thinking about rationalizing it or systematizing it. And I believe that craft is essential to interaction design, and always will be. But I also believe that there could be ways of thinking about interaction design, ways of generalizing principles from experience and existing knowledge, just as in the twenties general principles about composition and graphic design were developed at the Bauhaus, or a new grammar of film was invented by Eisenstein and written about by Arnheim. These ways of thinking about practice make a platform in which people coming after us can build without them needing to invent everything from the start." (Gillian Crampton-Smith 2007) Posted on March 09, 2010 | Permalink Meaningful Innovation Relies on Interaction and Service Design"Interaction designers can play a key role in creating a more meaningful, sustainable, and post-consumer world. come learn about frameworks and approaches that help designers make real change for customers." (Nathan Shedroff - Interaction10 videos) Posted on March 01, 2010 | Permalink Service as Design"Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot from watching.” Over the last several years, a unique set of students has been challenged to think about design for healthcare services. In my role as a professor at Carnegie Mellon I had the opportunity to observe their work and it offered many insights into design, design thinking, and just how big the healthcare service challenge is. In my new role in Microsoft's FUSE lab I’m looking at the future of social experience. My experience with the students and healthcare exposed the underlying notion that people participating in service—whether providers, consumers, or others that are actively involved—are actually designing as they participate in the service. If we accept the service as design lens, designers may need to see their role differently—from one of developing static objects and environments—to one of creating new methods for modeling experience, and skilling everyone to be active participants in design during the service experience." (Shelley Evenson - Interaction10 videos) Posted on March 01, 2010 | Permalink Designing User Interfaces For Business Web Applications"Business Web application design is too often neglected. I see a lot of applications that don’t meet the needs of either businesses or users and thus contribute to a loss of profit and poor user experience. It even happens that designers are not involved in the process of creating applications at all, putting all of the responsibility on the shoulders of developers. This is a tough task for developers, who may have plenty of back-end and front-end development experience but limited knowledge of design. This results in unsatisfied customers, frustrated users and failed projects. So, we will cover the basics of user interface design for business Web applications. While one could apply many approaches, techniques and principles to UI design in general, our focus here will be on business Web applications." (Janko Jovanovic - Smashing Magazine) Posted on February 25, 2010 | Permalink SpoolCast: Interesting Moments with Bill Scott"Bill speaks about both patterns—successful interaction models for common interactions - and anti-patterns. By showing what not to do, anti-patterns often provide insight on the right way to do something." (Brian Christiansen - User Interface Engineering) Posted on February 24, 2010 | Permalink New Ways of Interaction"This channel is a collection of projects about newer ways of human and physical interaction. It features interactive installations and systems with a strong focus on technologies such as multi-touch, tangible and gestural interfaces, augmented reality and physical computing." (@Jens Franke) Posted on February 18, 2010 | Permalink Service Design: An Interaction Design Perspective"What is service design? How is it different from interaction design? As an interaction designer with service design education and experience, offer my insights into what role interaction designers have in this emerging area of design." (Jamin Hegeman) Posted on February 15, 2010 | Permalink Live at Interaction’10"The first day of Interaction 10 in the wonderful city of Savannah, Georgia, kicked off without a hitch. Though eventually everyone was plagued by spotty, windy rain storms, the general pulse of the conference was positive and uplifting. Attendees were still talking about some of the great workshops from the day before, and they carried that energy over into today’s sessions. If one thing had to describe the overall theme of the first day it would be the importance of providing meaning in the work that we do. Below are recaps of the opening and closing keynotes, as well as some of the sessions from the day. (...) After a night of some great parties, and even better conversation, the second day of Interaction 10 began with a preview of the new IxDA.org website redesign. The team doing the redesign covered all the great new features that are coming, and went into detail on how local groups will be able to leverage the new site for their own networks and events. The excitement from yesterday was easily carried over, and people were pumped to see what the presenters had in store for us today." (Niklas Wolkert & Brad Nunnally - Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on February 07, 2010 | Permalink Thoughts on Apple's iPad"The iPad is not a laptop nor is it a smart phone. It is a couch device, a bedroom device (don't read that the wrong way), and a kitchen device (swivel it to cook from a recipe you find online). In all these places, a laptop always felt wrong. The iPad is optimized for surfing the Web, reading blogs/news/books, watching TV shows, playing casual games, listening to music, managing personal productivity (calendar, contacts) and looking at photos. Expecting it to do what a laptop does is the wrong frame of reference." (Luke Wroblewski) Posted on January 28, 2010 | Permalink What Makes Design Intuitive?"Using examples of web sites, applications, devices, and more, guest lecturer Jared Spool tackles factors that contribute to counter-intuitive design, and narrows down when design is intuitive." (Jared Spool - MFA in Interaction Design) Posted on January 26, 2010 | Permalink Apple's Proposed Multi-touch User Interface System"(...) these proposals outline an integrated interaction model of virtual "floating" controls that are specific to the mode or application the system is in. The controls are accessed and manipulated through touch-based gestures, combinations of mutli-touch inputs, and/or inputs detected through sensors. Users get haptic, audible, and visual feedback when using these input methods to interact with the system's set of virtual controls." (LukeW) Posted on January 19, 2010 | Permalink Interaction Design's Early Formal Education & Beyond"I believe that there has been a huge paradigm shift in the very nature of design practice and a growing shift in its education. And if we are not to acknowledge this shift at the core of education and career development we are doing a disservice to those who are interested in coming up the ranks as young interaction designers today. At the core of these issues is the believe in the separation between form and interaction. This myth can no longer be maintained - definitely not in education." (David Malouf - Johnny Holland Magazine) Posted on January 13, 2010 | Permalink What is Interaction Design History?"The interesting question is how you separate interaction design history from the broader scope of computing history in general. User experience people gravitate toward the history of hypertext and the graphical user interface, direct manipulation and the mouse, the work done at Xerox PARC and Apple. In many people's minds, that era marks the dividing line between the 'us' of the design community and the 'them' of computer scientists, because it's the point at which it became possible to draw a separation between the work that was done to serve the needs of the machine, and the work that was done solely to meet the needs of the user." (Karen McGrane) Posted on January 05, 2010 | Permalink Specifying Behavior: With an Example Menu Behavior Specification"(...) why do so many software products still violate them? And why do so many applications provide a poor user experience as a result of their not behaving properly? I can think of several possible reasons why some applications don’t behave as they should." (Pabini Gabriel-Petit - UXmatters) Posted on January 04, 2010 | Permalink Controls are Choices"Designing Devices is a series of articles on how and why to create devices, written by me, Dan Saffer, principal designer at Kicker Studio. This is a place for essays that I hope to eventually collect into a book in 2011. Like drafts, the articles will be constantly evolving, hopefully with your feedback." (Dan Saffer - Designing Devices) Posted on January 01, 2010 | Permalink Dimensions of design / Against ahistoricity"The ahistoricity of interaction design – the notion, implicitly held or otherwise, that rich interactivity is an entirely new topic in design for human experience, perhaps with the Doug Engelbart demo as Year Zero – has always driven me nuts. When even an old-school HCI stalwart like Don Norman fails to deliver useful insight, perhaps it’s time to start looking further afield for inspiration." (Adam Greenfield - Speedbird) Posted on December 14, 2009 | Permalink A unified approach to visual and interaction design"Unfortunately, my observation has been that even when all of the right people are involved, more often than not, the various design disciplines opt to compartmentalize the problem. In other words, they divide the project into an interaction design problem, a visual design problem, and an industrial design problem. Each of these problems is then tackled separately, and the resulting individual design solutions get bolted together at the end. It's a Tower of Babel situation, where huge opportunities are lost because the team fails to work together to come up with an innovative product solution and to employ a single, unified design language." (Nate Fortin - Cooper Journal) Posted on November 17, 2009 | Permalink Designers vs Developers: Coming together to build the best RIAs"What is the fastest way to get from a product idea to a rich internet application? By breaking down the communication barriers between designers and developers. This talk takes a quick look at how to build a shared vocabulary and use prototyping to bypass extensive wireframes and development specs." (Theresa Neil - Designing Web Interfaces) Posted on November 10, 2009 | Permalink Restoring Spring to iPhone/iPod Touch Springboard"All of these changes work within the current Springboard metaphor and should not present any insurmountable programming challenges. Certainly vertical scroll is most critical and should be implemented within the next couple of months if sales are not to be further limited. The rest can follow. These changes are also designed so that the new user or disinterested user will enjoy the same Springboard experience as today, while the 'power-buyer' can regain control of their device. Because iPhone/iPod Touch apps, at least at this point, all work one-at-a-time, adding ten or even twenty times as many apps to an iPhone/iPod Touch should have no effect on its reliability, etc. The only effect of these changes will be that both Apple and its developers make a whole bunch more money and that users will be having a whole bunch more fun, making their personal Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that much more beloved and indispensable." (Bruce Tognazinni - AskTog) - courtesy of nicotenhoor Posted on October 11, 2009 | Permalink A shorthand for designing UI flows"Flows are just as important to good interfaces as individual screens are. Customers don’t land on screens from out of nowhere. Specific sequences of actions lead customers through your app as they try to accomplish their tasks." (37signals) Posted on September 24, 2009 | Permalink interactions: Looking Broadly to the Future"This issue explores the future, where traditional boundaries of interaction are broken, creating a view of design as a larger, more culturally embedded, and ultimately more widely dispersed activity. We hope you enjoy the breadth of these efforts as presented in this issue of interactions." (ACM SIGCHI Interactions Magazine) Posted on September 23, 2009 | Permalink Why low-fidelity prototyping kicks butt for customer-driven design"In my discussions with designers, one of the interesting recurring conversations is the tools and process they use to prototype and mock up experiences. In particular, there’s a lot of divergence on how high or low-fidelity to go with a prototype." (Andrew Chen) - courtesy of uxtweets Posted on September 18, 2009 | Permalink Vinay Venkatraman on Interaction Design"Vinay Venkatraman, an interaction designer, is one of a rapidly expanding group of scholars and professionals around the world working to define the way our stuff behaves. Although it's natural for most people to understand the need for interaction with gadgets like software and mobile devices, the field is actually remarkably broad. In an increasingly interactive age, the success of systems, services and even whole corporations and organizations often comes down to an effective interface, created with human behavior in mind." (WorldChanging) - courtesy of puttingpeoplefirst Posted on September 18, 2009 | Permalink Designing for Interaction: Design Research"If only a small bit of the typical time, money, and resources used to make and market a product or service were put towards design research—observing, talking to, and maybe even making artifacts with customers and users—the products and services we use would be greatly improved. Dan Saffer explains." (Dan Saffer - Peachpit) - courtesy jhollandmag Posted on August 20, 2009 | Permalink Starting a Design Studio During a Downturn (1-5)"Kicker Studio has come a long way since our start in September 2008. Although the recession has certainly taken its toll and kept us from doing what we'd planned, it's also helped us do things we hadn't expected. And those things may have helped us grow in important and unexpected ways." (Jennifer Bove - Fast Company) Posted on July 07, 2009 | Permalink Designing a Unified Experience: Bringing Interaction, Visual, and Industrial Design Together"Interaction design, visual design, and industrial design are distinct disciplines for good reason: Each excels in different ways. Interaction designers must be good at imagining structure and flow, which requires strong analytical skills and a high degree of rigor, especially for complex systems. Visual designers and industrial designers are masters of visual and physical usability but are also masters of emotion: They know how to evoke caution, attract attention, and instill desire for a product at first glance. Users have just one experience of a product, though. All three aspects of the design must work in concert, or the product will fail to satisfy. Integration of the three disciplines is a central theme of Kim’s new book, Designing for the Digital Age." (Kim Goodwin - The UX Workshop) Posted on June 12, 2009 | Permalink Design With Intent: How designers can influence behavior"(...) we're experiencing a sea change in the way designers engage with the world. Instead of aspiring to influence user behavior from a distance, we increasingly want the products we design to have more immediate impact through direct social engagement." (Robert Fabricant - design mind) - courtesy of markvanderbeeken Posted on June 09, 2009 | Permalink Nice Research on Persona Effectiveness"The paper compares three groups; one group that is briefed with photos of personas, one which uses illustrations of the personas and the last group is briefed to with no personas, and uses aesthetic design." - (IxDA Discussion) Intensely debated topic (again). Posted on June 02, 2009 | Permalink Play in social and tangible interactions"Many of the interactions seen in tangible and social computing are essentially playful. Play can take on many forms, but they all involve people exploring a conceptual space of possibilities. When designing these 'embodied' interactions, it is therefore helpful to have a good understanding of play - this session aims to do just that. We'll compare the role of interaction designers to that of game designers, who concern themselves primarily with the creation of rule-sets. By using rules, designers have unique opportunities for conveying messages. We'll discuss the emergent behaviour of many social and tangible systems and propose that gardening might be a helpful metaphor. This requires designers to sketch in code and hardware, build prototypes, and observe their use 'in the wild'. Ultimately, we hope to encourage designers to put themselves on equal footing with the people using their systems, so that they can playfully grow meaningful interactions together." - (Kars Alfrink - IxDA Library) Posted on May 06, 2009 | Permalink Is Interaction Design a dead-end job?"(...) interaction design has become pervasive, that anyone and everyone can be an interaction designer, and so the role of professional interaction designer is (or is becoming) unnecessary." - (Tim McCoy - Cooper Journal) courtesy of jjursa Posted on April 30, 2009 | Permalink How to integrate interaction, visual and industrial design"Interaction design, visual design, and industrial design are distinct disciplines for good reason: Each excels in different ways. Interaction designers must be good at imagining structure and flow, which requires strong analytical skills and a high degree of rigor, especially for complex systems. Visual designers and industrial designers are masters of visual and physical usability but are also masters of emotion: They know how to evoke caution, attract attention, and instill desire for a product at first glance. Users have just one experience of a product, though. All three aspects of the design must work in concert, or the product will fail to satisfy. Integration of the three disciplines is a central theme of Kim’s new book, Designing for the Digital Age." - (Kim Goodwin - Cooper Journal) Posted on April 23, 2009 | Permalink Move beyond function towards connection"Most successful products create a sense of connectedness between the consumer and the designer and that this connection occurs when designers balance the pull towards the rational, functional, and expedient with the natural and emotional." - (David Malouf - Johnny Holland) Posted on April 21, 2009 | Permalink Designing for Business as UnusualPresentation at Interaction09 - "John Thackara shows the ways in which business as we know it are about to change for good, and then identifies how interaction designers can take these challenges on as design problems." - (John Thackara) Posted on April 02, 2009 | Permalink Attention, Awareness, and Interaction Design 2009"Here's a talk I gave at Interaction09 in February 2009 in Vancouver. It's mostly for interaction designers, but there’s some good quotes in here for these tough times, too. I hope you enjoy it." - (Dan Saffer - kickerstudio) Posted on April 01, 2009 | Permalink Enough UX Chumbaya!"Interaction Design is NOT Information Architecture. Stop the madness of trying to be everything to everyone!!" - (Dave Malouf) courtesy of jjursa Posted on March 29, 2009 | Permalink Demystifying Interaction Design"If interaction design isn't about influencing behavior... then what exactly are you doing?" - (Joshua Porter - Bokardo) Posted on March 26, 2009 | Permalink Behavior is our Medium"Robert Fabricant talks about Interaction Design as a practice beyond just computing technology. He gives examples of Interaction Design as far back as ancient history, all the way to a humanitarian project underway today. He shows that Interaction Design's primary medium is behavior, extending far past the high technology world into the realm of human behavior and relationships." - (IxDA Library) Posted on March 19, 2009 | Permalink Similarities Between Interaction Designers and Agile ProgrammersAlan Cooper video - "During the Agile 2008 conference, Amr Elssamadisy interviewed Alan Cooper. During their conversation, Alan provides additional context for his talk, 'The Wisdom of Experience' and explains why he believes the adoption of Agile methods by developers is a positive development for interaction designers." - (Cooper Journal) Posted on March 13, 2009 | Permalink Stage Directions Meet Functional Specifications: They Have a Lot in Common"When it comes to modern theater, stage directions—the descriptive text that appears within brackets in a script—are an important piece of the puzzle. They speak for the playwright when he is not there. They provide details about how the playwright has imagined the environment and atmosphere. They describe critical physical aspects of the characters and settings. Stage directions can also be critical in dictating the intended tempo and rhythm of the piece. Whether they establish a production’s overall tone or elucidate particular actions of characters, stage directions help tell the complete story that is in the playwright’s mind. Stage directions accomplish all of this, using a simple convention that structurally separates them from the actual story." - (Traci Lepore - UXmatters) Posted on March 10, 2009 | Permalink Industry trends in prototyping"In the world of designing interactive products and services, prototype is generally defined as some representation of a design idea. In the world of physical products, the term tends to connote something quite similar to the finished manufactured form. Indeed, industrial designers use the term model to describe what interaction designers think of as a prototype." - (Dave Cronin - Adobe Dev Connection) courtesy of janjursa Posted on March 02, 2009 | Permalink Interaction 09: All posts in one place"From opening parties to closing remarks, Core is all over IxDA's latest gathering in Vancouver." - (Carl Alviani - Core77) Posted on February 12, 2009 | Permalink Each One, Teach OneKim Goodwin's IxDA '09 keynote - "(...) it discusses the future direction of interaction design as a profession. We've seen demand for our services increase dramatically over the past few years, and, in order to continue to respond to this demand, we need to make more of us. Part of the solution involves creating academic programs to provide the foundation for learning the craft of interaction design; another part is to create a culture of mentorship. This means that all of us need to learn to teach what we do." - (Cooper Journal) Posted on February 12, 2009 | Permalink Apple's Flatland Aesthetic I: How a Simple Idea is Causing Complexity"Apple needs to take a fresh look at all of their products across the board, specifically looking for where old decisions favoring new users are now dragging those same users down. Of course it's a good idea to avoid complexity, including hierarchies, where possible, but some tasks are inherently complex. Go for visual and behavioral simplicity where it works, but be prepared to back off." - (Bruce Tognazzini) courtesy of johngruber Posted on February 10, 2009 | Permalink Carpe DiemSlides from the keynote address to Interaction09 by Dan Saffer. - (KickIt) Posted on February 09, 2009 | Permalink Live at Interaction09: Day 1-4"Today one of the best UX events in the world started; interaction09 in Vancouver. For four days more than 400 interaction designers huddle together in order to get inspired on the field of interaction design. Of course we sacrificed ourselves and traveled to Vancouver just to give you a 'live' report. For the next four days you can read our thoughts and observations." - (Jeroen van Geel - Johnny Holland) Posted on February 06, 2009 | Permalink Beyond the touch screen"Since Apple's introduction of the iPhone, it seems like everyone is excited at the possibility of implementing a touch screen, and why not? There are a lot of benefits to touch-screen interfaces: Extreme flexibility in visual and interaction design allows products and applications to be tailored for specific needs and audiences to target markets; less reliance on hardware controls means significant savings in mechanical cost; larger screens allow more opportunities for richness in states and animations; greater flexibility also means the possibility to reduce waste in the creation of longer-lasting devices with upgradable OS's and software." (Michael Voege - Cooper Journal) Posted on February 04, 2009 | Permalink Pattern Languages for Interaction Design"Will Evans stalked and captured Erin Malone, Christian Crumlish, and Lucas Pettinati to talk about design patterns, pattern libraries, styleguides, and innovation. Erin, Christian, and Lucas are leading a workshop on design patterns at this year's Interactions in Vancouver and, Erin and Christian are writing a book on patterns for designing social spaces for O'Reilly." (Will Evans - Boxes and Arrows) Posted on January 27, 2009 | Permalink Introduction to Interaction DesignAn Interview with Dave Malouf - "interaction design is about deciding the flows and conversation, the narrative that these interface points make up - the notes that are played by the musician." (Will Evans - Johnny Holland) Posted on January 19, 2009 | Permalink Tap is the New Click (The Video)Video registration - "Even though the technology has been around for decades, only now are we starting to see mass production and adoption of touchscreen and gestural devices for the public. Jeff Han's influential 2006 TED demonstration of his multitouch system, followed by the launches of Nintendo's Wii, Apple's iPhone, and Microsoft Surface, have announced a new era of interaction design, one where gestures in space and touches on a screen will be as prominent as pointing and clicking. But how do you create products for this new paradigm? While most of us know how to design desktop and web applications, what do you need to know to design for interactive gestures? This introduction to designing gestural interfaces will cover the basics: usability and ergonomics; a brief history of the technology; some elemental patterns of use; prototyping and documenting; and how to communicate that a gestural interface is present to users." (Dan Saffer) Posted on January 09, 2009 | Permalink An Interview with Anders Ramsay: Prototyping"You prototype as much as you have to." (Smart Pill Videos) Posted on December 23, 2008 | Permalink The Semantic Turn: A New Foundation for DesignBy Klaus Krippendorff (2006) - "It is difficult to summarize this book or give it proper treatment. But, it should be known that this will probably become one of the founding writing's in the field of interaction design. A must-read for practitioners." (Christian Beck) Posted on November 12, 2008 | Permalink Tap is the New Click (Presentation)"I had awesome crowds yesterday at my two 'Tap is the New Click' presentations. Lots of great discussion and people laughed at my jokes to boot! Here is a pdf version of the presentation slides (8mb) for your downloading pleasure! The first chapter of the upcoming Designing Gestural Interfaces book can also be downloaded for your reading pleasure." (Dan Saffer - Kicker Studio) Posted on September 19, 2008 | Permalink Cultural Aspects of Interaction Design"When a group of people, no matter its scale, start sharing common ways of thinking, feeling and living, culture emerges. Culture therefore can emerge from any population segment. It is not limited to a geographic area or ethnicity. Different cultures can be distinguished by their individual and group characteristics, e.g. the mental models, behavioral patterns, emotional responses, aesthetics, rules, norms, and values that group members share. Different cultures therefore produce different artifacts and environments based on their cultural characteristics. On the other hand, artifacts, through people’s interactions with them, influence cultures and can even produce a new culture." (Keiichi Sato and Kuohsiang Chen - Special Issue of Int.'l Journal of Design) Posted on September 15, 2008 | Permalink Dan Saffer Leaves AP"I plan on relishing my remaining time here at Adaptive Path, even though I know with a pang in my heart the end is coming, and soon. I've worked here longer than any place I’ve ever worked. Here, I learned everything I know about running a design consultancy, and, truthfully, a lot of what I know about being a designer in general. It was here I sharpened my interaction design and product strategy skills, as well as honing my speaking and writing chops." (Dan Saffer - Adaptive Path Blog) Posted on September 04, 2008 | Permalink More Than Useful"The presentation was framed by a slightly philosophical look at how certain games subliminally activate cognitive processes and could thus be used to allow for new insights. I used Breakout and Portal as examples of this. I am convinced there is an emerging field of playful products that interaction designers should get involved with." (Kars Alfrink - Leapfrog) Posted on June 25, 2008 | Permalink Five things I believe about the aesthetics of interaction design
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