Interaction Design

Indraneel Roy

Lecture 1 – Interaction Design Advance - Semester VI

 Emergence
Why there was a need for such term?
 John Kolko, Author of Thoughts on Interaction Design,
gives the following definition to interaction design:

“Interaction Design is the creation of a dialogue between a person and a product,

system, or service. This dialogue is both physical and emotional in nature and is
manifested in the interplay between form, function, and technology as experienced
over time.”
Interaction designers are focused on the
moment when a user interacts with a product
and their goal is to improve the interactive
experience. For UX designers, the moment of
interaction is just a part of the journey that a
user goes through when they interact with a
product.

UX design and interaction design are

connected but it’s nearly impossible to create
good interaction design in isolation of UX.
The five dimensions framework
The five dimensions of interaction design is a useful model for understanding what interaction
design involves. Gillian Crampton Smith, an interaction design academic, first introduced the
concept of four dimensions of an interaction design language. Kevin Silver later extended his model
with the fifth dimension.

1D 2D 3D 4D 5D
Visual Physical
Words Time Behaviour
Representations Objects
The five dimensions framework

1D Words encompass text, which helps convey the right amount of information
to users. Words, especially those used in interactions, like button labels,
Words should be meaningful and simple to understand. They should communicate
information to users without overwhelming them with too many details.

2D Visual representations include typography, icons, and other graphics with

which users interact. Visual representations usually supplement the words
Visual used to communicate information to users.
Representations
The five dimensions framework

3D
1D Physical objects are a medium through which users interact with the product
or service. For instance, a user interacts with computers and a mouse while
Physical sitting on a desk in an office space.
Words
Objects

4D
2D Time helps users understand visual changes in a UI; it also helps users track
their progress.
Time
Visual
Representations
The five dimensions framework

5D Behavior includes both action and reaction. Behavior is what describes the
mechanism of an interaction with a product.
Behaviour Behavior was added by Kevin Silver in his article, What Puts the Design in
Interaction Design.
Interaction Design Principles
While it’s impossible to list all of the principles of interaction design, it’s still possible to describe a
few general areas that are widely used in this field:

1. Goal Oriented Design

Goal-driven design is a design style that holds problem-solving as the highest priority. This
approach focuses on satisfying the specific needs and desires of a person who will use the
product, which is the goal of interaction design.

2. Usability
Usability answers the question “can people use this product?” Good usability is a fundamental
requirement for interaction design. Learnability (how easily can a new user learn to use the
interface?), efficiency (how quickly can users perform tasks?), error rate (how many errors
do users make while interacting with UI?) as well as error-recovery (how quickly can they
recover from errors?) are four things that have a direct impact on usability.It’s possible to
measure usability using task-completion time and overall satisfaction (do users enjoy using
the product).
Interaction Design Principles
3. Ergonomics

Interaction designers apply physiological principles

to the design of products. The goal of this process is
to reduce human error, increase productivity, and
enhance the safety of interaction.

Interaction designers often use a predictive model

of human movement, also known as Fitts’s law,
when they design interactions. This law says that
the time required to rapidly move to a target area is
a function of the ratio between the distance to the
target and the width of the target. Fitts’s law is
used to model the act of pointing. It can be applied
both when the UI element is touched with a hand or
finger, or virtually, using a pointing device.
Fitt’s law
In 1954, psychologist Paul Fitts, examining the
human motor system, showed that the time
required to move to a target depends on the
distance to it, yet relates inversely to its size. By
Takeaways
his law, fast movements and small targets result
in greater error rates, due to the speed-accuracy
• Touch targets should be large enough for
trade-off.
users to accurately select them.
Fitts’ law is widely applied in user experience (UX) • Touch targets should have ample spacing
and user interface (UI) design. For example, this between them.
law influenced the convention of making • Touch targets should be placed in areas of
interactive buttons large (especially on finger- an interface that allow them to be easily
operated mobile devices)—smaller buttons are acquired.
more difficult (and time-consuming) to click.
Likewise, the distance between a user’s
task/attention area and the task-related button
should be kept as short as possible.
Interaction Design Principles
4. Positive emotional responses

Designers must create a design that influences positive emotional responses in users. Interaction
designers are aware of elements that influence user emotional responses. Color palettes, fonts,
animations—all of them can trigger emotional responses.

5. Design for people

When it comes to product design, it’s hard to design for an abstract user. Designers should always
evaluate their decision in the context of a particular user group.

Personas are a great tool for designers.A persona encapsulates critical data about a user group in a
way that designers can understand and relate to. The emotional aspects influence designers to
create better product behavior.
Addressing Interaction Design
Design patterns

How do designers address interaction problems? They use patterns. A pattern is a solution for a
particular context. In many situations, designers can address new problems through the
modification of existing patterns. Usually, interaction designers start with well-known interface
guidelines such as Human Interface Guidelines by Apple and Material Design by Google. The
guidelines not only provide the patterns that are familiar for the users but also show how to use
them in specific contexts.

Design iterations

Designers can have multiple solutions for one particular interaction problem. The only correct way
to reduce the number of design options is to see how it works for real users (validate it through
testing). Not all assumptions about interaction design pass the testing. Quite often, designers have to
return to the drawing board to design an alternative solution. That’s why interaction design is rarely
linear, but an iterative process.
Exercise

Choose any digital product of your choice and demonstrate how the 5-
dimension framework is applied to it on the virtue of its interaction
design.

• Individual project
• Slides (Body) – 5-10