“Design is to design a design to produce a design.” – John Heskett, design history scholar

Interaction designers should get more credit than they do; especially since we use their creations on a daily basis. Writing text messages on mobile phones, the click to a new website page, the way we navigate on computers were all created by Interaction designers. We all have benefited from good interaction design because interaction design is all about behavior. Most people are torn between buying/using Windows (PC) and an Apple computer (MAC). Each computer has almost the same idea but because interactive designers design by behavior, each computer feels different to the users.

What Is Interaction Design?

Defined by “Designing for Interaction,”  interaction design is about making connections between people through products. It is facilitating interactions between humans through products and services. According to “ “, interaction design is an applied art because of in which  interaction design fosters communications between two or more human beings. It is an applied art because interaction designers think of ways that technologies can benefit the users, for example the best way to send an email.

How is Interaction Design about Behavior?

When creating Windows and Mac platforms, interactive designers used to two types of processes; focusing on users and finding alternatives. Focusing on users means that interactive designers take into consideration that users care about doing their task and achieving their goals within their limits. Before Windows and Mac computers were made, interactive designers thought about how each computer can make users tasks easier to implement and easier to complete. Windows has always provided more of a selection of software than Mac computers, giving users an arrangement of ways to complete certain tasks. Interactive design is also about giving users options (finding alternatives), letting users choose between two or more products or services. For example, users might choose a PC because it is cheaper than Mac computers. With Mac computers using different software than PCs ,(Macs use OS X), each computer feels, looks and acts differently. Some users are able to navigate OS X than Windows and vice versa.

The Elements and Approaches of Interaction Design

Interactive designer’s use different types of elements and approaches when designing Windows and OS X.

Motion

Behavior and design are about movement. According to Saffer,   it’s how we scroll up and down on an iphone or how we use our finger to click the button on our mouse Without motion there can be no interaction. I agree that behavior is about fluidity; how things work together. Windows has been known to experience poor stability because Window’s software is connected to each other. For example have you ever seen a “not responding” on top of Internet Explorer? Does your computer freeze when this happens as well? When a program locks up, the entire computer stops working as well thus requiring a restart. I am a PC, but in regards to design, interactive design lacked fluidity, movement in the programs software. Window is easy to break. If a user moves the wrong file or folder the entire computer can quit working, not much fluidity. OS X is different in which a user can move a program file anywhere on the hard drive and nothing will break. The desktop contains icons that enable users to quickly open a program, therefore creating movement easily.  OS X movement, program wise is separate from one another and from the operating system itself. If one program stops working, the computer keeps working. OS X desktop icons are at the bottom of the screen, leaving an open space in the middle; appear to be a lot cleaner than Windows. OS X is different in which a user can move a program file anywhere on the hard drive and nothing will break.

User-Centered

When creating each computer, I believe that interactive designers used a user centered approach. According to Saffer, people using a product or service know what their needs, goals and preferences are. To help users achieve their goals, participation are sought from the users in every aspect of the design process. This reminds me of the Windows 7 commercials in which users of the PC talk about how they had an idea of how to make PC’s better and then Windows 7 comes out implementing their suggestions. There are even commercials where customers make a suggestions and Windows flies the users out to Tokyo where they can test the product. Windows is showing how they are trying to fit the products to people and that they focus a lot on what the user ultimately wants in a product. What is interesting is that Window’s commercials show a lot of diversity in its users, which means that PC’s are for everyone. Interactive designers have even designed Windows Pc’s to compatible to a lot of software, in which Mac is not; Macs have not been very compatible with Windows computers and vice versa. It took a while for Mac computers to even be designed for Microsoft Office software for example.

Activity Centered Design

Saffer defines activity-centered design as actions and decision that are done for a purpose. Windows and OS X were each designed for a purpose such as Windows are used for the average every day users while Macs are used mostly for the creative users such as film makers, graphic designers etc. Software for each computer is designed with user’s task in mind.

Time

Saffer mentions another approach is time, the duration of how long interaction takes. Some interactions take a couple hours and some take years. Windows and Mac computers take time to put together and even with its completion, over the years the two computers are always updating and improving, which takes time. Time is also the millisecond it takes to click a mouse or click on an icon. Interactive designers think about these things.

Appearance

“How something looks gives us cues as to how it behaves and how we should interact with it.” The Apple computer has a very sleek design but to some users who have engaged in PC’s most of their lives are little apprehensive to the appearance of the Mac desktop. It is different than that of Windows. I think appearance also has to do with affordable the product will be.  Most PC’s, mentioned before, and is less inexpensive than Mac computers. However the less expensive e a computer is the less software, security and memory it will offer.  Interactive designers rely on the term “affordance” called by cognitive psychologist James Gibson. According to Gibson, an affordance a property, or multiple properties, of an object that provides some indication of how to interact with that object or with a feature on that object. When users use a computer, just by the appearance of the computer they know what to do. When they see icons on the desktop, users know to click it. The shape of the buttons on a keyboard suggests pushing down and symbols will appear. Appearance conveys behavioral content. Users ask questions such as “Is the object expensive or cheap? Complicated or simple? Daunting or approachable? These are also questions that users ask when they are thinking about buying a Pc or a Mac. For simple usage, Windows is the better deal, for an expensive computer Mac is a better purchase. I think interactive designers have to think about the details of the appearance of products and services such as the color, the size, the shape and how will users react to the appearance (behavior)?

Characteristics of Good Interaction Designs

I’ve mentioned elements and approaches to interactive designs and why interactive designs are about behavior. Next time when you are out at a store and thinking about (keeping with the same example) a computer, ask yourself these questions:

  • Is it trustworthy? Most users think Macs are more trustworthy and then Windows because Windows tends to have more viruses, freeze and not last very long. However, PC’s tend to provide more a variety than Mac’s in software and in PC’s brands. Some brands are more trusting than others.
  • Is it smart?
  • Is it responsive?
  • Is it ludic? (playful)
  • Is it Pleasurable?

Reading “Designing for Interaction,” I never thought about how many interactive designers have done for technology. Even the blogs that I use for my assignments have been thought out carefully by interactive designers by implementing everything that Saffer has stated.

Thank you designers.

Cited

Saffer, D. (2007). Designing for interaction. Berkeley: New Riders, pp. 1-68.