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01 Introduction to Interaction
Design
CII-4N3 Interaction Design
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Learning Outcomes
Students are able to explain the definition of interaction design, the
process of interaction design, and the relationship between IxD and
UX
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Topics
Introduction
What is interaction design?
IxD and UXD
The process of Interaction Design
Practical Issues
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Overview of Interactive
Product
 Product in Everyday Use
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• How many interactive products are there in everyday use?

• Think for a minute about what you use in a typical day
• Now think for a minute about how usable they are.
• How many are actually easy, effortless, and enjoyable to use?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-smartphones/ https://barriedentist.ca https://www.walmart.com

 Why is there a difference?
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https://www.hsl.gov.uk https://grabitall.co.za

 Many products that require users to interact with them, have been designed primarily with the
user in mind. They are generally easy and enjoyable to use.
 Others have not necessarily been designed with the users in mind;
 Fact…
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• The fact that much of today’s software suffers from the same interaction
errors that were around 20 years ago . (Alan Cooper - 2018)
• How can we rectify this situation so that the norm is that all new products
are designed to provide good user experiences? To achieve this, we need to
be able to understand how to reduce the negative aspects (such as
frustration and annoyance) of the user experience while enhancing the
positive ones (for example, enjoyment and efficacy). This entails developing
interactive products that are easy, effective, and pleasurable to use from the
users’ perspective.
 Why Digital Product Fail?
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There are four main reasons why this is the case:

• Misplaced priorities on the part of both product management and
development teams
• Ignorance about real users of the product and what their baseline needs are
for success
• Conflicts of interest when development teams are charged with both
designing and building the user experience
• Lack of a design process that permits knowledge about user needs to be
gathered, analyzed, and used to drive the development of the end
experience
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What is interaction
design?
 Definition
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• The book “ Interaction Design beyond Human Computer Interacton” ,

interaction design is define as:
"designing interactive products to support people in their everyday and working
lives".
• This entails creating user experiences that enhance and extend the way
people work, communicate, and interact.
• Now that it is widely accepted that HCI has moved beyond designing
computer systems for one user sitting in front of one machine to embrace
new paradigms, we, likewise, have covered a wider range of issues. These
include ubiquitous computing and pervasive computing that make use of
wireless and collaborative technologies.
 Component of Interaction Design
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• We view interaction design as fundamental to many disciplines, fields, and

approaches that are concerned with researching and designing computer-
based systems for people.
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IxD and UXD

 UXD vs IxD vs UID
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• User Interface (UI) Design, User Experience (UX) Design, and Interaction
Design (IxD) are three associated terms often used interchangeably.
 By Definition
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• UX Design: UX Design is a higher order concept that encompasses

numerous design aspects along with a user’s journey on a system, platform,
software, or application. It includes UI design, Ix design, communication
design, application design, information architecture and more. The goal of
UX design is to facilitate the best feeling a user receives while operating on
a device.
• Interaction Design: IxD is “the practice of designing interactive digital
products, environments, systems, and services”. It focuses on designing the
flow whereby a user could locate information easily while enabling the
achieving of her information goal in each interaction. The notion of usability
in a digital product is often associated with good interaction design.
• UI Design: UI Design is the design of interfaces for devices, and is focused
on the graphics creation aspect.
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The Process of Interaction

Design
 Interaction Design Process
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Essentially, the process of interaction design involves four basic activities

(Preece, et.al; 2002):
1. Discovering requirements for the interactive product.
2. Designing alternatives that meet those requirements.
3. Prototyping the alternative designs so that they can be communicated and
assessed.
4. Evaluating the product and the user experience it offers throughout the
process.
 Three Key Characteristic
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In addition to the four basic activities of design, there are three key
characteristics of the interaction design process (Preece, et.al; 2002):
1. Users should be involved through the development of the project.
2. Specific usability and user experience goals should be identified, clearly
documented, and agreed upon at the beginning of the project.
3. Iteration through the four activities is inevitable. Designers never get it right
first time
 Classic Lifecycle models
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• Many lifecycle models have been proposed in fields related to interaction

design. For example, software engineering lifecycle models include the
waterfall, spiral, and V models
• We focus on Classic Lifecycle Models
 Google Design Sprints
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• Google Ventures has developed a structured approach to design that

supports rapid ideation and testing of potential solutions to a design
challenge. This is called the Google Design Sprint.
• A sprint is divided into five phases, and each phase is completed in a day.
This means that in five days, you can go from a design challenge to a solution
that has been tested with customers
• As the authors say, “You won’t finish with a complete, detailed, ready-to-ship
• product. But you will make rapid progress, and know for sure if you’re headed
in the right direction” (Knapp et al., 2016, p16–17). Teams are encouraged to
iterate on the last two phases and to develop and re-test prototypes. If
necessary, the first idea can be thrown away and the process started again at
Phase 1.
• There is preparation to be done before the sprint begins.
Google Design Sprint
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Practical Issues
 Practical Issues
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The discussion so far has highlighted some issues about the practical application
of user centered design and the simple lifecycle of interaction design introduced
earlier. These issues are listed here:

 Who are the users?

 What are ‘needs’?

 Where do alternatives come from?

 How do you choose among alternatives?

 Who are the users/stakeholders?
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• Not as obvious as you think:

— those who interact directly with the product
— those who manage direct users
— those who receive output from the product
— those who make the purchasing decision
— those who use competitor’s products
• Three categories of user (Eason, 1987):
— primary: frequent hands-on
— secondary: occasional or via someone else
— tertiary: affected by its introduction, or will influence its purchase
Who are the stakeholder?
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 What are the users’ capabilities?
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Humans vary in many dimensions:

— size of hands may affect the size and positioning of input buttons
— motor abilities may affect the suitability of certain input and output devices
— height if designing a physical kiosk
— strength - a child’s toy requires little strength to operate, but greater
strength to change batteries
— disabilities(e.g. sight, hearing, dexterity)
 What are needs?
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• Users rarely know what is possible

• Users can’t tell you what they ‘need’ to help them achieve their goals. Sometimes, ‘define
problem’ is a problem.
• Instead, look at existing tasks:
• their context
• what information do they require?
• who collaborates to achieve the task?
• why is the task achieved the way it is?
• Envisioned tasks:
• can be rooted in existing behaviour
• can be described as future scenarios
 Where do alternatives come from?
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• Humans stick to what they know works

• But, considering ‘out of the box’ alternatives

• Designers are trained to consider alternatives, software people generally are not.

• How do you generate alternatives?

— ‘Flair and creativity’: research and synthesis

— Seek inspiration: look at similar products or look at very different products

 How do you choose among alternatives?
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• Evaluation with users or with peers, e.g. prototypes

• Technical feasibility: some not possible

• Quality thresholds: Usability goals lead to usability criteria set early on and check regularly

— safety: how safe?

— utility: which functions are superfluous?

— effectiveness: appropriate support? task coverage, information available

— efficiency: performance measurements

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Reference

Jenny Preece, Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp. 2019. Interaction Design_beyond

Human-Computer –Interaction- 5th Edition, J. Wiley & Sons. Chapter 1 & 2

Alan Cooper, et. al. 2014. About Face - The Essential of Intraction Design - 4th
Edition. J. Wiley & Sons , Inc. Chapter 1

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-interaction-design
https://uiuxtrend.com/ui-design-vs-ux-design-vs-interaction-design2/
Questions
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