Q1 :

Interaction Design
A design craft that deals with interaction, which isn't a term specific to computers. This could be
the interaction between a customer and a checkout line, between a caller and a customer service
agent, or a barista and his coffee maker.

HCI
Human-Computer Interaction is an area of study as opposed to a design craft. It refers to the
broad relationship of people and computers. This includes interfaces and usability all the way up
to, for example, how computers would be used to automate an assembly line to create efficiency.

Human Computer Interaction is an academic field which has been around for decades. There are
huge academic conference (e.g. ACM SigCHI) and the British HCI conference devoted to it.
There are also good academic journals Transactions on HCI etc.
In fact HCI started out as Man Machine Interface ... there was even a journal of that name!

Interaction Design emerged in the mid nineties when alot of companies were starting to employ
people in these roles. At Nortel where I worked at that time we used it to distinguish between
Interaction designers who dealt with software design e.g. visualisations of network faults,
Product designers who worked on the physical look of the phones etc and user researchers who
did the background user research.

For me the term Interaction Design is now somewhat superceded by User Experience. The
change of focus implies the shift towards focusing more on the user and getting it right for them
in their own context. Context is king these days .

For me Interaction Design feels like a dated term. I hope HCI will stand the test of time I and
many others have a PhD in it!
Q2 :
Usability goals and User experience goals

They are absolutely different, but it doesn’t mean they don’t go often in the same direction.

Usability goals are geared (what the name itself implies) towards usability, which means that all
the features of the artefact you are designing for, should/must be aligned with the user goals,
providing thus a path of minimum friction and effort to a specific user objective. I’d like to think
it a “functional” kind of problem: everything needs to be balanced with ergonomics in mind,
reducing cognitive loads and boosting attributes like learnability, memorability and
discoverability.
Outcome of a good usability design should be efficiency, efficacy, accessibility, errore reduction
and prevention…

When you are talking about UX goals, we are talking of something broader than just those
outcomes: UX is the overall feelings derived from the interaction / use / engagement with your
product-system, thus usability per se may be a value added factor, but not a strict requirement.
A lot of products and services are not that great at the usability analysis, but the overall
experience is so good that they went mainstream and now they “weirdness” or “not so good”
design choices become standard de facto on the market. Think about the “Hambuger Menu”: it is
an usability hell from a theoretical point of view, but most of us are accustomed to at least
recognise it and use it.

Outcome of a good UX are Likability, Valuability, Loyalty, Love, Advocacy and so on.
At a base level, It’s difficult to love a well designed form, but it’s much easier to hate It if it’s not
“usable”. To love it and make it an experience, we can add micro-interactions and transitions and
color coding, for instance. With the sum of all these details, then, you will have not only a well
designed interface, but also an outstanding product that stands out from the crowd.U