Interaction Design
technology, human behavior & trends
gy,
Francesca, 20 november 2008

What is interaction design?
Interaction Design (IxD) is the discipline of defining the behavior of
products and systems that a user can interact with.
d d h i ih
The practice typically centers around complex technology systems such as
software, mobile devices, and other electronic devices.
However, it can also apply to other types of products and services,
H l l t th t f d t d i
and even organizations themselves. Interaction design defines the
behavior (the \"interaction\") of an artifact or system in response to its users.
“These could be in any medium (such as live events or performances,
products, services, etc.) and not only digital media.
I t ti i
Interactive experiences, necessarily, require ti
il i time as an organizing
i i
principle (though not exclusively) and Interactive Design is concerned
with a user, customer, audience, or participant's experience
f
flow through time. Interactivity should not be confused with
g y f
animation in which objects may move on a screen. Interactivity is
concerned with being part of the action of a system or
performance and not merely watching the action passively”.
Nathan Shedroff

Usually common objects are not interactive.
ll b
Old fashioned objects basically are mono-functional
machines capable to perform one or f t k
hi bl t f few tasks.

Due to technology, today some objects are turned
into multi-functional complex machines.
Those multifunctional machines are capable of
something more They have a behavior
more. behavior.
Those multifunctional machines have an interface.

Interface
I t f
Interaction
Product
P d

What changes with Interaction Design
from “product-as-object”
product as object
towards the notion of “product-as-event”
where the dynamic and interactive qualities of products and services
need t b b tt understood i th context of h
d to be better d t d in the t t f human b h i
behavior.
Interaction Design explore context
& deal with complexity
any interaction requires:
* a context, an interaction scene
* two or more participant in mutual relation
* a system of interfaces

IxD Schools
UMEA University, Sweden Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
http://www.dh.umu.se/default.asp?ml=10447 http://www.design.cmu.edu/
http://www.interactiondesign.se/blog/ http://www.design.cmu.edu/show_program.p
http://www design cmu edu/show program p
hp?s=2&t=3
TU Delft, Holland
http://www.io.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=b Srishti School of Design, Bangalore, India
4c76e5e-3a59-4be9-a050-
b http://srishti.ac.in/sunoh/index.htm
c847d3a5fbb2&lang=en
IVREA Institute
Media Lab, Helsinki
ed a ab, e s http://interactionivrea org/en/index asp
http://interactionivrea.org/en/index.asp
http://mlab.taik.fi/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_Desi
gn_Institute_Ivrea
Royal College of Arts, England
http://www.interaction.rca.ac.uk/
Studios Directory
Domus Academy Milano, Italy http://www.core77.com/blog/education/the_i
http://projects.domusacademy.net/interaction
http://projects domusacademy net/interaction nteractionivrea offspring 11512 asp
nteractionivrea_offspring_11512.asp
design/
Interaction Venice, Italy
Interaction Venicehttp://www.interaction-
venice.com/index.html

Where is interaction design
placed with respect to other
design disciplines?

Wide field for the design interventions
(at least) two approaches
like (two) sides of the coin
Stay in between of art and engeneering,
trying to get both the inspiration:
some kind of balance between
product & communication
communication,
material & immaterial

What are the skills of the
Interaction D i
I t ti Designer? ?

The skills of an interaction designer are
varied; the range
aried they
from user research to consensus
building & from prototyping to
balancing business requirements
requirements.
Interaction designers come from different
backgrounds; however what's common to
however, what s
their education at the School of Design is a
human-centered design process,
which focuses on answering real
human needs in the context of
everyday living.

Personas turn “the users” into identifiable human beings. Saffer, 2007

Tools/ Personas

La figura della
“portavoce”
• Una figura dalla personalità
carismatica, la “leader” del
g pp
gruppo.
• E’ coinvolta attivamente nelle
iniziative del centro, e spesso è
l’organizzatrice di attività ed
eventi.
• Le altre utenti si fidano di lei e
del suo parere.
Per LaMaglia è una risorsa
g
importante, specialmente nella
fase di lancio, perché può
aiutare a vincere la diffidenza
nei confronti del nuovo
servizio,
servizio promuovendone gli
aspetti positivi e
trasmettendone i benefici.

Tools/ Storyboards
CARICARE
1.Accedo al sito 2.Stampa il codice 3.Lo posiziono 4.Lo fotografo 5.Invio il contributo
VISUALIZZARE
Trovo un Codice Lo fotografo Accedo al Menù, scelgo visualizza

1. Rikiya pensa di voler 2. Non sa dove andare a 3. Manda una domanda ad
fare la miso soup. comprare le alghe Agora’, nella stanza
necessarie perche’ non giapponese, dove chiede
conosce negozi di aiuto riguardo ad un
alimentari tipici giapponesi. negozio vicino al suo ufficio
dove potrebbe essere
reperibile l’alga.
4. Masako riceve 5. Dopo aver parlato al telefono 6. Letta la domanda di Rikiya, 7. Pubblica un commento al
una chiamata sul cellulare. con un collega va a consultare la pensa ad un possibile messaggio di Rikiya sul portale di
pagina giapponese su Agora’. negozio. Agora’ come risposta alla domanda.

Tools/ Flowcharts
A flowchart is a schematic
representation of a process,
or the step-by-step solution
of a problem using suitably
problem,
annotated geometric figures
connected by flow lines for
the purpose of designing or
documenting a process or
program (Wikipedia)

Tools/ System Map
The
Th system map shows i a schematic
h in h i
manner an overall view on the context,
the users, the stakeholders and the way
3B. Si reca allo sportello dell’ecomuseo they interact with the system.
8. Creazione
1. Organizzazione mostra iniziale
. O ga a o e os a ae
2.
2 Si reca alla mostra
ll t codici finali
7. Organizzazione mostra finale
Mostra Figura
Codici finali
Ecomuseo
3A. Stampa lo sticker 4B. Stampa lo sticker
4A. Carica i contributi 5B. Carica i contributi
comunità di Sito web
Opera
5A 6B
archiviazione archiviazione
contributi contributi
Database
+
3C. Fotografa sticker
centro polifunzionale
4C. Visualizza i contributi

Rileva la Rileva la
posizione posizione
i i
ANTENNA GSM
WARE
TELECOM COMUNE PROVINCIA
6c. Inizia una
SOFTW
Pagamento Fornitura Comunicazion Fondi di
pacchetti di rete e e alla città supporto conversazione
traffico traffico
ONNA
5c. Visualizza
le posizioni
COMUNITA’ DE CENTRO DO
5b.
Contatta un
utente
EL
6b. Scrive un
messaggio
CENTRO DONNA 7b. risposta
C
5a.
5a 6a.
6a Il SW cerca
1.
Inserisce tra i profili
Iscrizione al
una parola
servizio
chiave
2.
Consegna
del Java 7a. risultato
3.
Compilazione
profilo
4. Feedback e
istruzioni
d’uso
d’ so
incontro

These different tools and methods refers to
two main design task:
1- Study of the interaction (communication)
Process of understanding and setting of i
P f d di d i f interactions system
i
2- Project of interaction (products)
Process of practical creation of interaction artifacts
If we stand in product design, we are interested in prototyping
And deal with complexity of the machine
If we stand in communication design fields,
we start to think to user interfaces
And d l ith
A d deal with complexity of i f
l it f informations
ti

IxD phases IxD process keypoints:
1. analyze the context Approach:
Users, instruments, physical spaces, Switch interest from technology to users
features, task, goals, constrains,
workflows etc.
2. conceive the system Method:
Information architecture, system Multi-disciplinarity
components and configurations,
p g ,
modules, workflows, tasks etc.
3. design the touchpoints Organization:
The interfaces b t
Th i t f between th parts /
the t Team working
users of the system
Aim:
4. build prototype
In order to deal with diversity and complexity
Simulations, paper mockups,
maquette, fully functional prototype
etc.

Cases and tips

Vodafone future vision
(scenario building & trends)
http://www.vodafone.com/flash/future/application/index.html
http://www vodafone com/flash/future/application/index html
http://www.vodafone.com/start/innovation/future_vision0.html

http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/
p // y / j /

3 Main trends:
Interaction for House & Living
(see document IxD_houseliving.pdf “Sense & Simplicity” project)
Trend of Opensource
Arduino project http://www.arduino.cc/
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible,
easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for anyone interested in
creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can sense the
environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its
surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The
g y g g , ,
microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming
language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based
on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate
with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).
Trend of Mobile MCT
Touch project htt //
T h j t http://www.nearfield.org/about
fi ld / b t
Near Field Communication (NFC)

Chi 2009 conference Boston (early 2009)
call for papers is open
http://www.chi2009.org/Authors/
“Design and the elastic mind” MOMA New York
Interaction design exhibition
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

Essential reference
Interaction Design Association
http://www.ixda.org/topics.php?topic methods
http://www.ixda.org/topics.php?topic=methods || http://www.ixda.org/
Blogs & News
p // p // g
http://www.leeander.com | http://mentegrafica.it/blog/ | http://idearium.org/
/ g/ p // g/
http://www.odannyboy.com/ | http://www.digicult.it/en/category.asp?cat=Interaction+Design
http://www.odannyboy.com/blog/archives/001000.html || http://www.interaction-design.org
Books
Bill Buxton, Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, Morgan
Kaufmann, 2007
John Maeda, The Laws of Si li it MIT P
J h M d Th L f Simplicity, Press, B t 2006
Boston 6
Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, MIT Press, Boston, 2001
Bill Moggridge, Designing Interactions, MIT Press, 2007
Bruno Munari, Design As Art ,Penguin Modern Classics, 2008
Donald Norman, The Invisible Computer, MIT Press, 1998
Donald Norman,Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine, 1993
Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, New York, Doubleday, 1988
Donald Norman ,The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York, Basic Books, 1988
Dan Saffer, Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices, 2006

warm thanks to all of you
for hospitality and friendship.
p y p
一会儿见面！
francesca
f.valsecchi@gmail.com – urijoe.org
skype: urijoe - qq: 759725102
yp j qq