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Interaction design

Interaction design defines the structure and content of communication between two or more interactive “beings” to understand each other. (source: Wikipedia)

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)

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 VoegeCooper Journal)

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 EvansBoxes and Arrows)

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)

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)

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)

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 SafferAdaptive Path Blog)

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)

Shades of Use: The Dynamics of Interaction Design for Sociable Use

“Computers are used in sociable situations, for example during customer meetings. This is seldom recognized in design, which means that computers often become a hindrance in the meeting. Based on empirical studies and socio-cultural theory, this thesis provides perspectives on sociable use and identifies appropriate units of analysis that serve as critical tools for understanding and solving interaction design problems.” (Mattias Arvola PhD thesis 2005)

Urban procedural rhetorics

“This is a transcript of my presentation at The Web and Beyond 2008: Mobility in Amsterdam on 22 May. Since the majority of paying attendees were local I presented in Dutch. However, English appears to be the lingua franca of the internet, so here I offer a translation. I have uploaded the slides to SlideShare and hope to be able to share a video recording of the whole thing soon.” (Kars AlfrinkLeapfrog)

Thoughts on Interaction Design (download)

“Interaction designers are the shapers of behavior. Behavior is a large idea, and may, at first blush, seem too large to warrant a single profession. But a profession has emerged nonetheless. This professional category includes the complexity of information architecture, the anthropologic desire to understand humanity, the altruistic nature of usability engineering, and the creation of dialogue. These topics are discussed in the four sections of this text. Download ‘Thoughts on Interaction Design’ as a single .pdf file suitable for on-screen reading (2,520k)” (Jon Kolko et al.)

Bill Morggridge’s keynote presentation

“Bill Morggridge delivered a really cool talk during the Service Design Symposium, hosted by the CIID. It’s really interesting the way he explains how design has evolved over time. Just after graduation, back in the 60’s, he thought he would spend his whole life designing kettles and washing machines. But as technology evolved, and life became more complex, he realised that designers needed to design the systems that actually surround a product. For example, how to make a train journey more delightful? Designers need to not only worry about making a comfy seat, they actually need to think about the whole customer journey, and how systems, processes, people impact a customer’s experience. Welcome to the amazing world of service design!” (Erick Mohr – intuire)

User Experience Factor 1: State Glue

“I finally got myself an iPhone, … and it is reeeaaally nice! Perhaps not the best phone on the market but using it is a real joy. One of the great things about it is that the interaction feels so smooth and sweet. It made me wonder what makes it so nice. One of the things I want to show you in this article is how this actually works in practice and what makes it such a good user experience.” (Martijn van WelieThoughts on Interaction Design)

The Nature of Design Practice and Implications for Interaction Design Research

“The focus of this paper is interaction design research aimed at supporting interaction design practice. The main argument is that this kind of interaction design research has not (always) been successful, and that the reason for this is that it has not been guided by a sufficient understanding of the nature of design practice. Based on a comparison between the notion of complexity in science and in design, it is argued that science is not the best place to look for approaches and methods on how to approach design complexity. Instead, the case is made that any attempt by interaction design research to produce outcomes aimed at supporting design practice must be grounded in a fundamental understanding of the nature of design practice. Such an understanding can be developed into a well-grounded and rich set of rigorous and disciplined design methods and techniques, appropriate to the needs and desires of practicing designers.” (Erik StoltermanInternational Journal of Design) – courtesy of markvanderbeeken