This is a 2 to 3 page paper, and it must follow the paper template provided on blackboard.
Students will turn in a preliminary draft for comments. They will then produce a final draft.
First Draft: ( my crazy musings on the topic)
Project 1 - What is Interaction Design
Wrapping it all up
Of all the definitions I have managed to read, I seem to wholeheartedly agree with this one, if simply as part of my theoretical definition of the field. Why? Simply put, because I think Humans are at the base of the Interaction designer, perhaps more so than in any other design practice, and perhaps uniquely different than how humans are centered in say people who work in human factors or psychology. The practice of design is based in the ability to provide choices. All design works with the mentality of providing not a sole and perfect way of doing or solving something, but in multiple ways of trying to do something while improving it. Interaction design in practice is based on taking multiple types of approaches tiered through various stages of development to achieve a balance. Its not only about improving the controls on a device, but its looking as to how the controls tap into the emotions of its user and how the pleasure acquired from this leads to connecting and ultimately communicating with said object. Interaction design is the sum of the parts of the practice aspects, aimed at achieving this balance. It is as Nathan Shedroff states, a sensorial approach, as well as a calculated researched approach, it is as important to digital products as is it to analog ones, and while perhaps our current times seem to exert Interaction design most in the development of devices, interaction design is by no means limited to the intangible environments, quite the contrary, many interaction design problems exist outside the domain of computational environments and live and breathe amongst us, as they are inherently problems based in human nature.
What this all means to me, is that interaction design is the process by which we make these multiple problems of human needs come together and become solved by the combination of various methodologies. The interaction designer is well versed in the various methods that address the multifaceted aspect problems that arise out of the human condition, and has a strong sense of understanding how to solve for them not just through one branch but through multiple branches serving as a connecting bridge for addressing these complex varied needs and ultimately still functioning with a design mind, keeping in check the idea that a problem has multiple solutions and outcomes.
References
1. Buchanan, Richard, Design, Making, and a New Culture of Inquiry. The Innovative University 10, 2 (2004), Chapter 12, Carnegie Mellon Univ. Press, [Books]
2. Shedroff, Nathan. Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design, In In Robert Jacobson, ed., Information Design. (1999) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 267-292. [Books]
Project 1: Paper on “What is interaction Design?”
Based on what we have read and on your own experiences, offer your voice to the ongoing
conversation on what interaction design is. Pick a specific audience you want to address:
incoming grad students in interaction design, HCI practitioners, interaction designers, other
designers, product managers, company executives, your parents, etc. Offer a narrow definition
and work to connect this with some of the themes we have discussed. Also consider focusing on
what is was, is and will be.
All text is Copyright © Juliana Diaz 2010Project 1 - What is Interaction Design
What is Interaction Design?
Introduction
When I began thinking about the nature and history of Interaction design, it was hard to get a clear definition of what it is and what its not. It seems that very few people seem to agree on the limits of what its not, and somehow most seem to be far too inclusive as to what it is. This was simply confusing, and hard to manage. Everyone’s interpretation of the types of skills, the practice and the platform, is so varied, that right of the bat I could claim that almost all forms of design have an influence or basis in interaction design. Which really only ends up contributing to the nebulous nature of the term.
I could end the essay quickly by simply stating that everything is interaction design, but that clearly feels like some quick solution to a much harder question. In the end, after having spent some time doodling and sketching arrows and ideas and thoughts, I stumbled on some clarity. While perhaps it does little to contribute to limiting which areas of practice fall under interaction design, what I believe the clarity I obtained does is, it helps me accomplish perspective; and more importantly a method of approach as to how to deal with the question of what interaction design is.
Some basic thoughts
Lets start with some foundational thoughts. I know interaction design is directly correlated to us humans, to our existence as living and breathing beings, to our behaviors and thought processes, and to our emotions. I know this because it is the activity of communicating amongst us and what we do on our day-to-day lives, which generates the questions on how to better improve these communications. I know interaction design is also about relationships between humans and their context. I say this because context is far more inclusive than say just saying technology. I believe interaction design occurs, even when we choose to interact with things that are not strictly computational.
A two-path definition
So what is interaction design? Depends on how you are trying to define it. The clarity I mentioned earlier occurred, because I managed to create small distinction in my head, I realized the meaning would be slightly different if I was asking the question from a practice perspective or from a theory perspective. If I was trying to grasp what interaction design was at the practice level, I would basically list a set of methodologies by which designers can potentially solve Interaction problems. And at this point the definition include things like information architecture, graphic design, visual design and other design practices which together can be used to solve more area specific problems. Similarly I can also include more scientific methods like those practiced by the HCI community, as part of a recipe to a much larger goal. Sadly this perspective does little to quench the thirst of those of us seeking to truly identify the skills of the Interaction Designer because under my current practice definition I need to be well versed in all these fields in order to be a good Interaction designer.
But as I mentioned earlier, one of the moments of clarity was thinking about what Interaction Design was not only in practice but also in theory. This is where I think it comes together and allows me to at least grasp what Interaction design truly is. While scouting for some additional material about the history and definition of Interaction design, I stumbled on this little set of lines, written by Richard Buchanan in a 2001 essay “Design, Making and the New Culture of Inquiry”.
“…Interaction design is about people: how people relate to people, how people relate to products, and how people relate to each other through the mediating influence of products…”
Article Source : Project 1 - What is Interaction Design
