Chapter 2 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the second chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Yvonne Rogers.

Assignment Questions
Question A: Compare the ways the following information artifacts are organized:

• A personal pocket-sized calendar/diary (one week to a page).
• A wall calendar (one month to a page, usually with a picture/photo).
• A wall planner (displaying the whole year).

Question B: Using Johnson and Henderson’s (2002) framework, describe the conceptual models that underlie the design of:

• An electronic personal calendar found on a personal computer.
• A shared calendar found on the web.

Assignment Answers

Question A
Here is my analysis regarding the similarities and differences of the organization embodied in the following artifacts: (1) a personal pocket-sized calendar/diary (one week to a page); (2) a wall calendar (one month to a page, usually with a picture/photo); and (3) a wall planner (displaying the whole year).

The organization scheme leveraged in each of these artifacts features many similarities since all of these artifacts offer representations of the same phenomena – time. That said, the organization also differs in considerable ways to accommodate the different types and contexts of use that each of these artifacts is designed to support. Here is a list of the key differences and similarities that I was able to identify:

• All artifacts leverage the concepts of years, months, and days in a chronological fashion as central organizational elements. The relationship between these elements is kept consistent across all artifacts. What differs is how each artifact highlights different entities and relationships based on its purpose and the primary context of its use.
• Wall calendars and diaries lay out information across multiple pages due to the level of detail that they provide. Wall calendars display one-month per page and usually feature a length of 24 pages. Diaries display one-day per page and usually include a full 356 pages. Wall planners display a full year’s worth of information on a single poster-page.
• Wall calendars and diaries enable users to add annotations to specific dates. Wall calendars do provide limited space for annotations. They enable users to add special events and identify key dates. Only diaries provide users the ability to thoroughly plan a day’s activities by devoting a full page’s worth of space to single day. Diary users often fill up these pages with appointments and other time-relevant information. On the other hand, wall planners rarely offer space for users to add annotations to specific dates.
• Wall calendars and diaries always feature day-of-week information using visual or text notations. Day-of-week information is a core piece of data for users who want to plan their activities across a month or day; however, it less important for planning across a full year. That is why wall planners sometimes do not display day-of-week information.
• Wall calendars and diaries often feature images or quotes that are thematic or seasonal in nature. These features add variety to the experience associated to using these tools. They are also usually only discovered by the user when s/he views a new month or day. Though wall planners also tend to feature interesting designs, few are able to provide the discovery” and visual differentiation offered by an artifact with multiple pages.
• Wall planners and wall calendars feature multiple days worth of information on each page. As a consequence, these artifacts are more likely to include visual presentations that display days as a part of a week or month. In contrast, diaries focus on each day individually as its own entity. This feature of diaries enables them to capture substantially more in-depth information about the activities of each day. To help people organize their day’s activities, each page of a diary divides a day into half- or quarter-hours (check out this cool diary form Muji).
• Wall planners and wall calendars are both designed as posters and meant to be used in a single place, unlike dairies that are created in book format in order to be portable. Wall planners and calendars are designed to be hung up in a room to be used for reference and for annotation of key dates and events. On the other hand, diaries are designed to help people keep their lives organized minute-by-minute, including while they are on-the-go.
• Diaries often feature additional information such as contact books, world maps, notes pages, and personal contact information. These features are supported by the diary’s book-like format and they enable and reflect the diary’s role as a life organizer. Wall planners and calendars are not able to provide these additional features, nor would it make sense for them to support them considering the context of use.

Question B

Relevant Concepts: Johnson and Henderson’s (2002) framework for developing conceptual models: This framework identifies the standard components of a conceptual model. Thus providing guidance to designers regarding considerations that need to be addressed when developing conceptual models. The term conceptual model is defined as “high-level descriptions of how a system is organized and operates.” Components of a conceptual model:

1. Major metaphors and analogies: important metaphors and analogies used to enable the user to understand what a product does and how to use it.
2. Concepts: detailed overview of the concepts that users are exposed to and that they need to understand. Description should define the objects the concepts create and manipulate, any relevant attributes, and the operations that can be performed on concept.
3. Relationship between concepts: the relationship between concepts. Important things to define include whether an object contains another, or is part of it, and the relative importance of objects and actions.
4. Mappings: the mappings between the metaphors, concepts and the user experience the product is designed to invoke.

Analysis part 1 - An electronic personal calendar found on a personal computer

Major metaphors and analogies: The major analogy is managing a day planner. Other important analogies include a using yearly planner, monthly calendars, automatic alerts, text-editing applications, which feature file save, delete and create functions, and email applications, which include attachment and social capabilities. From a metaphor perspective, “events” is the most prominent one. Another important metaphor on calendars with sharing capabilities is “invitations.”

Concepts: These include the Calendar, a calendar, creating calendars, saving calendars, modifying calendars, deleting calendars; Events, single instance and recurring events, creating events, saving events, modifying events, deleting events, receiving events, sending events, accepting events, rejecting events, linking events to calendars, attaching documents to events, adding alerts to events, setting availability status for event.

Relationship between concepts: The calendar contains calendars, which in turn contain a group of events. Events are linked to calendars directly. Events can be linked to more than one calendar or event. Events are linked to other events via the calendars. Events contain start and end dates and times, locations, invitees, personal status, meeting name, and description. The ability to schedule and save an event is more important than the ability to invite participants to it, add an attachment or link the event to a calendar. Sending an event invitation is more important than being able to respond or receive response to an invitation.

Mappings: The calendar refers to the chronological organizational structure of the interface. This organizational structure is based on years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Calendars and events are created and added to this structure. An event corresponds to real-world events. When a user creates an event the system requires that they create a name, and define start and end dates/times. Additional optional attributes can also be defined at the time of creation or later through modification. A calendar corresponds to a group of events such as “work,” “birthdays,” or “personal.” When a user creates a calendar the system requires that they create a name only. User can add existing events or create new ones. An “invitation” corresponds to an email message that is used to invite individuals to an event. Invitations include information regarding the meeting and links that enable recipients to respond to the meeting request (accept or reject). When a recipient accepts an invitation from another user the event is automatically created on his/her calendar.

Analysis 2: A shared calendar found on the web.

Major metaphors and analogies: The major analogy is managing a day planner. Other important analogies include a using yearly planner, monthly calendars, automatic alerts, text-editing applications, which feature file save, delete and create functions, email applications, which include attachment and social capabilities, and negotiating schedules to book a meeting. From a metaphor perspective, “events” is the most prominent one. Another important metaphor on calendars with sharing capabilities is “invitations.”

Concepts: These include the calendar, private calendars, shared calendars, others’ calendars, creating calendars, saving calendars, sharing calendars, viewing calendars, deleting calendars, setting and changing calendar owner and participants; Events, single instance and recurring events, private and shared events, mine others’ events, creating events, sharing events, saving events, modifying events, deleting events, receiving events, sending events, accepting events, rejecting events, linking events to calendars, attaching documents to events, adding alerts to events, setting availability status for event, setting and changing event owner; Owners and participants, setting owners and participants, changing owners and participants, deleting participants, blocking participants, adding participants.

Relationship between concepts: The Calendar contains calendars, which in turn contain a group of events. Events are linked to the Calendar and calendars directly. Events can be linked to more than one calendar or event. Events are linked to other events via the calendars. Events and calendars can be private, or shared. Events contain start and end dates and times, locations, owners, invitees, personal status, meeting name, sharing status and description. Calendar and/or event have owners, who determine who is able to modify their shared calendars and events. The ability to schedule and save an event is more important than the ability to invite participants to it, add an attachment or link the event to a calendar. The ability to make a calendar private is more important than the ability to make it shared. Sending an event invitation is more important than being able to respond or receive response to an invitation. The ability for calendar owners to set rights privileges for events within their calendar supersedes the event owners privileges.

Mappings: The Calendar refers to the chronological organizational structure of the interface. This organizational structure is based on years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Calendars and events are created and added to this structure. An event corresponds to real-world events. When a user creates an event the system requires that they create a name, and define start and end dates/times. Additional optional attributes can also be defined at the time of creation or later through modification. A calendar corresponds to a group of events such as “work,” “birthdays,” or “personal.” When a user creates a calendar the system requires that they create a name only. User can add existing events or create new ones to calendars. An “owner” corresponds to the person who has the rights privileges to make modify a calendar or event. “Participants” correspond to people who are related to an event or calendar but are not able to make modifications to that entity. When a user creates a calendar or event s/he is automatically assigned as the owner. Owners can modify ownership status and rights privileges assigned to participants of an event or group. An invitation corresponds to an email message that is used to invite individuals to an event. Invitations include information regarding the meeting and links that enable recipients to respond to the meeting request (accept or reject). When a recipient accepts an invitation from another user the event is automatically created on his/her calendar.

The Medium is Behavior

Here is a short list of interesting posts that I came accross earlier today, enjoy...

Earlier today I came across an interesting, though disappointingly short, post on Core 77 about the keynote speech from the Interaction 09 conference. This conference, recently held in Vancouver, featured an interesting keynote from Robert Fabricant. In his speech, Robert outlined his thesis that "Interaction Design is not about computing technology, it's about behavior. Behavior = our medium." His theory is based on the premise that the evolution of interactive technologies has changed our relationship not with information, but also our ideas about what constitutes proper behavior. He goes on to convingly argue about the power that interaction design yelds to impact behavior. [since I didn't attend this conference, all of my knowledge is second-hand].

Another interesting feature currently available on Corre77 is the Greener Gadget Design Competition. The design brief for this competition was for designers to explore the concept of "Greener Gadgets." They were asked to develop consumer electronic prototypes that consider the environmental impact of their designs multiple levels: energy, materials, lifecycle, recicyling, social impact, and educational development. Two of my favorite gadgets are: the Bware Water Meter helps you measure how much water you are using (I already have an alternative idea to this one that I want to develop and market); the Blight blinds capture energy from the sun during the day and function as lights during the night time;

Lastly, since we are on the topic of gadgets I recommend checking a post from Mashables titled 6 Gadget Trends and Their Effects on Social Media. This piece provides a brief overview of 6 interesting technologies that are quickly gaining in adoption. What are these trends?

1. Social TV enabled by services such as Boxee, Netflix and Sling allows you to watch all your favorite shows streaming on your TV. You can then automatically share playlist and comments with your friends.
   
2. High definition geo-tagged content enabled by the advent of mobile phones with hi-res cameras and GPS functionality
3. Real-time uploading of content offered by mobile phones and photo and video cameras with special data cards that offer wireless upload capabilities.
   
4. Gaming immersion continues to spread as gaming expands to new devices that are increasingly connected, enableing users to maintain centralized profiles that aggregate their game scores from multiple platforms.
5. Pico projection is here. Now you can get pocket-sized projectors for under $400. These little guys are also beginning to make their way into cellphones and other GPS and communication-laden devices.
6. The rise of the pocket bands and mobile phone musicians. The craze in iPhone and Android music applications continues to spread. Check out these Yamaha music-phone prototypes.
   

Chapter 1 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the first chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Helen Sharp.

Assignment Overview: Find an everyday handheld device and examine how it has been designed, paying particular attention to how the user is meant to interact with it. Device selected: iPhone (not very original, I know. I'm sure thousands of students from around the world are making this same pick right now).

(a) from your first impression, write down what first comes to mind as to what is good and bad about the way the device works:

The good list:

• easy to learn and use most functionality
• fast access to most important device features
• leverages natural gestures for smooth and fluid interactions
• touch screen interactions are responsive and accurate
• easy to organize and add content and applications
• seamless synch with computer via iLife suite
• flawless great integration of music player and phone
• aesthetically pleasing software transitions (and in general)
• form factor fits well and feels good in-hand
• device is reliable

The bad list:

• inability to run multiple applications at once
• missing cut & paste functionality
• lack of ability to switch battery
• missing tactile feedback from physical device
• limited support of file types
• purchase and activation process
• limited availability and bad customer service (only on AT&T)

(b) Give a description of the user experience resulting from interacting with it:

The best word to sum up the experience of using the iPhone is delightful. Before you even turn on the device you can notice that it is beautiful in both look and feel. From a tactile perspective, the plastic casing of the phone provides a pleasant feel that is soft and warm. Its curved casing helps the device fit ergonomically in one’s palm. All this and I haven't even turned on the device yet. To describe the user experience associated to interacting with the device here is one user scenario and one description:

Scenario 1: Let’s meet up spontaneously
On a chilly Saturday afternoon as Julio wraps up his visit to BAM he calls two good friends who live nearby. He is unable to reach them but leaves them both messages. He then proceeds to turns on the ringer of his iPhone, using the physical switch on the top left corner of the device, to make sure that he doesn’t miss the return calls.

Next, Julio puts on his headphones, takes out his iPod, double clicks on the home button, and then touches the play button that appears on the screen - the iPhone starts playing music where he had left off earlier. After 10 minutes waiting Julio decides to head back to Manhattan. He strolls down to the subway stop shaking his head and enjoying the Presets latest release at his usual ear-busting volume. As he takes his first step down the stairs the music is suddenly interrupted by an incoming call. He checks the caller ID and picks up the phone, once he confirms who is calling.

After a quick exchange of friendly insults and taunts, Abe invites Julio to join him at a nearby bar to get sloshed. Since Julio doesn’t have the slightest clue about how to get to this bar, he takes out his iPhone and opens up the Google Map application. There he inputs the destination and requests directions from his current location. He is also able to determine that the subway is the best way to head over, so after blocking a bunch of impatient fellow New Yorkers for 5 minutes Julio continues heading the down the steps to the subway.

User description: experience using the device
The first thing you notice when you power up the device is the size, vividness and crispness of the screen - images look great. Then you start interacting with the device via the smooth and responsive touch screen display.

The experience of using the touch screen is impressive. Apple has done an amazing job at designing interactions that feel natural. From sliding your finger across the screen to unlock the device, to pinching content to reduce it, or best of all flicking your finger to quickly browse through your phone list or long page of content. Across all of these interactions the device is extremely responsive in a way that makes it feel very natural.

The functionality on the device is also well prioritized. Phone and music player functions are definitely the two most prominent features of the device, unique shortcuts provide quick access to these apps. This helps make the device a pleasure to use. Though I don't like to admit it, a pleasurable part of the experience of using an iPhone is the coolness factor. It is a device that exudes coolness and from a social perspective one feel's cool using this product.

(c) Compile a set of usability and user experience goals that you think are relevant in evaluating the device. Decide which are the most important and explain why:

Usability goals:

• Efficient to use: device supports use of frequent tasks efficiently. Provides fast access to most important applications and functionality. Delivers high level of responsiveness and reliability.
• Good utility: device to product provide an appropriate set of functionality? Supports most common voice and text message protocol, and multimedia content formats. Enables media player functionality where phones not allowed and functionality enhancements/upgrades via software.
• Easy to learn: device is easy for first-time users to learn. Provides an intuitive interface.
• Safe to use: device protects users against common errors? Protects users against calling people in error, entering mis-spelled text into messages, and loosing data when they quit applications.

The most important usability goals for this product are efficiency and utility, here’s my rationale: now-a-days users are very picky about cell phone and portable media players since most have already owned several portable devices. Multi-function mobile phones need to deliver the appropriate set of functionality to succeed (this is the most basic price of entry into the market). Considering the frequency and variety of uses to which people put their mobile devices, it is crucial that these devices supports frequent use in an efficient manner. No one wants a multi-function portable phone that does not allow you to quickly and easily switch between making calls, listening to music, or checking your email.

Experience goals:

• natural feeling gestures
• cool, fun & enjoyable
• enhancement of sociability
• pleasurable & delightful
• aesthetically pleasing

The most important experience goals are natural-feeling gestures, enhancement of sociability and pleasurable interaction, here’s my rationale: Hard to use interfaces have kept people from adopting advanced functionality long offered their devices. That is why multi-function mobile phones need to offer interfaces that are based on gestures that feel natural. Enhancement of sociability is an important goal for this device considering that main function of mobile phones is to help connect people via voice and text messaging capabilities, and that people tend to use these devices in social or public environments. Lastly, since this device is used so often – you spend more time with your phone than with your significant other – it is crucial for users to feel pleasure when interacting with the device.

(d) Translate your set of usability and user experience goals into two or three specific questions. Then use them to assess how your device fares.

Usability goals-related questions:

• Is the product able to provide users with fast access to the most important and commonly used functionality?
• Does the product support the most common communication and entertainment uses (e.g. does it support voice and text message protocols, common media file types, and usage contexts?)
• Can users learn how to use the product without needing to refer to the manual or other types of support?
• Does the product help users avoid, and easily recover from, common errors associated to use of mobile communication and entertainment devices?

The iPhone stacks up well against all of these criteria. First, it provides fast access to all of the most commonly used functionality. This is done via the design of the software application launcher (a.k.a. “home”), and shortcuts using the few hard buttons available on the device. Next, the device does a great job at supporting a wide variety of file formats and messaging protocols. However, this is a area where the device could be improved by adding support for MMS messages and additional music and video file types. From an ease-of-learning perspective the iPhone is unrivaled. You can pick it up and learn how to use the basic features with little help (assuming you have familiarity working with computers, which holds true for most people in developed nations). The iPhone does have some nice features that help users avoid common errors.

Experience goals-related questions

• What is the user’s response to the aesthetics of the device? How does the user feel about the gestures required to operate the device (fluid, natural, awkward, silly)?
• What is the user’s response to his/her interaction with the device (delight, excitement, annoyance, frustration)? How does the initial reaction differ from subsequent ones?
• How does the user’s relationship with, and response to the device evolve over repeated interactions? What types of emotional bonds does the user create with the device (trust, affection, pride, love, hate, admiration)?
• How does the user feel about using his device in different contexts such as social, personal, professional, and public environments?

From an experience perspective, the iPhone delivers the goods once again. The device has the nicest aesthetic of any device in its category (and I mean the entire cell phone category). The gestures required to operate the phone feel natural and are extremely easy to learn as you go (you stumble into learning). From the first time I played with an iPhone I felt a bit of delight – it often brings a smile to my face. That is not to say that I don’t ever experience frustration but, overall, no portable digital device has ever provided me with more delight. I definitely have an emotional bond with my iPod – my wife may even call it an iPhone fetish. I can understand why, considering I am always playing games, surfing the web, using a messaging application or messing around with one of my many applications. The device is cool but not snobby. So you can use pretty much anywhere. I know I sound like a bloody Apple ad.

(e) Compile a set of design principles that you think are relevant in evaluating the device. Decide which are the most important and explain why. Translate your set of usability and user experience goals into two or three specific questions. Then use them to assess how your device fares.

Design Principles:
Though the following five design principles played an important role in the design of this device – visibility, feedback, constraints, consistency, and affordance – affordances and visibility are the most important principles for this design. The importance of visibility is obvious considering that this device packs an unbelievable amount of features in a pocket-sized package. In light of the device’s size, it is extremely challenging to find a solution for making affordances associated with different “modes” accessible to, and understandable by, the user.

Design principle-related questions

• are the most important possible actions clearly visible? Is the prioritization appropriate?
• does the device make affordances visible, easy to recognize, and use?
• does the device provide sufficient feedback to the user throughout the interaction?

The iPhone scores well against the design-principle assessment. The design of the iPhone interface makes the most important possible action clearly visible and accessible. Users are even able to customize menus to ensure buttons and information is organized according to personal preferences and priorities. To make affordances visible to users, applications leverage large buttons on the touchscreen display and provide directions on the screen regarding other potential actions. Feedback is provided through intelligent visual and audio cues that help the user easily interact with the device to carry out a diverse range of activities such as inputting text, playing games, creating music, dialing a phone number or using navigation capabilities.

[questions taken from textbook Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, link to website here]

Wearable Projection-Based Interface

Earlier today I came across a post on Wired about a new mobile device prototype that has been unveiled at TED. Designed by MIT Media Lab students, this device uses a projector to display the interface that is manipulated using gestures captured by a video camera. Video demos from Wired are featured below.

In many ways this prototype is similar to the Holographic Projection Interface that I wrote about back in October. The main differences about this design include that it uses normal projection technology rather than a holographic one which is not yet available, and that it leverages internet connectivity to provide contextually relevant information above and beyond GPS navigation. It is also impressive that they have managed to create an actual prototype using $350 worth of equipment - though they are far from creating a commercially viable product, it is pretty impressive prototype.





[via Wired]

10-15 Week Self-Taught Interaction Design Course

For the next 10-15 weeks the content of my blog is going to be associated to my reading of the text book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. This book was written by three British ladies, Sharp, Rogers and Preece, and published on Willey. Here is a link to their website, which is somewhat underwhelming considering the depth of the book. This is not to say that other topics may not occasionally pop up - the will be the exception rather than the rule.

For the past five months my personal curriculum has focused on reading and applying the theoretical knowledge and perspectives in my everyday experience with interactive devices and services. Moving forward I want to take a more structured approach to exploring interaction design before I delve into experimentation with design itself (those who would rather just dive in head first into the practice of design itself may think this sounds like looking at a porno magazine - albeit a good one - in substitution for the real thing).

So for the next few months my posts are going to feature my "homework". I will be sharing the assignments that I will be completing from the end of each chapter in the text book. Here is an overview of what the book covers (of course, I will likely focus on some areas and assignments, while glossing over others - one of the main benefit of following your own curriculum):

1. What is Interaction Design?
2. Understanding and Conceptualizing Interaction
3. Understading Users
4. Designing for Collaboration and Communication
5. Affective Aspects
6. Interfaces and Interactions
7. Data Gathering
8. Data Analysis, Interpretation, and Presentation
9. The Process of Interaction Design
10. Identifying Needs and Establishing Requirements
11. Design, Prototype, and Construction
12. Introducing Evaluation
13. An Evaluation Framework
14. Usability Testing and Field Studies
15. Analytical Evaluation
    

Reading List: Interactions, January & February 2008

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a few weeks now. The hectic pace of our do-more-with-less, post-financial-crisis, and always-on/always-connected world, has kept me from finding two spare hours to devote to this simple endeavor.

This month's edition of Interactions magazine featured several interesting pieces that are well worth the read. Here is brief overview of the most interesting ones, along with a link to the original article online.

Social Network Sites and Society: Current Trends and Future Possibilities
Written by Nicole Ellison, Cliff Lampe, and Charles Steinfield, this article focuses on exploring how social network sites are transforming society. As this technology becomes adopted by a greater swath of the population, it impact becomes more pronounced. The information available in social networks lowers the barrier to social interaction, helping individuals forge connections that would have otherwise not taken place. Social networks also make it easier for people to manage weak ties by lowering the amount of effort required to keep these relationships alive.

Social networks also help counteract the increasing isolation created by the proliferation of mobile communication and entertainment devices such as iPhones, PDAs, iPods, PSPs and the like. These technologies inhibit opportunities for engagement between people in public spaces. The ability to connect people with similar interests or concerns makes social networks ideal places to assist the coordination and mobilizing of social actions.

Some interesting questions for research are raised by the authors: “how can the power of social network sites be leveraged in other contexts, including formal organizations? How can social network sites support individuals as they make life transitions, such as moving to a new city or starting a new job? How can the mobilizing power of social network sites increase community and political engagement, especially among traditionally disenfranchised groups?” [link to article]

90 Mobiles in 90 Days: A Celebration of Ideas for Mobile User Experience
This article, written by Rachel Hinman, explores a personal project she undertook to come up with a new idea related to mobile design and user experience every day for 90 days. This process, though daunting at first, provided the author with several interesting insights. First, this prolific creation of new design ideas provided a "template for creative practice" by shifting the focus from an attempt to find the right idea to a process of idea generation and exploration, which carried with it a unique momentum.



As part of this shift in perspective, the author had to come face to face with her own inner critic that served as a barrier to the daily idea generation work. The last insight imparted bythe author is how this process of idea generation helped her gain a deeper understanding regarding the source of inspiration, which can come from pretty much anywhere. So now the question is: when will embark in similar project of my own. [link to article]

The Washing Machine That Ate My Sari – Mistakes in Cross-Cultural Design
This article, written by Apala Chavan, Douglas Gorney, Beena Prabhu, Sarit Arora, adresses common mistakes and issues in the design of products for emerging markets. Their main premise is that designers have had to deal with the challenges associated to launching products across markets and cultures for a long time but have only recently begun to adapt their processes and approaches to support the specific challenges related to developing for products for emerging markets. “Successful design for emerging markets requires radical innovation. It demands culturally sensitive and sometimes unorthodox approaches that can throw a designer off balance.”

Designers and marketers are touching the lives of people who a few years ago were not even on the radar. These people from emerging markets have specific needs. First, they demand affordability. However, they are also more cautious than “consumers” in the West because of their limited income. This means that products must be durable, as people will avoid products that seem to be of low quality or disposable. To complicate matters, culture has a large impact on a product’s success on functional and emotional levels. As a consequence, designers need to understand the specific needs of each emerging market in which they plan to launch their product. [link to article]

The Heterogeneous Home


This piece, written by Ryan Aipperspach, Ben Hooker, and Allison Woodruff’s, discusses the homogenization of domestic environments, potential negative effects of this phenomena and interesting design concepts for addressing this trend. The homogenization of our homes is caused in large part by the pervasive technology that provides us access to the same “virtual environment” at home as in the office. This phenomena is extended by time shifting technologies that modify our experience of time, and mobile devices that provide anytime, anywhere access to work and home.

The main negative impact that arises from this increasing homogenization of our domestic environment is that it squeezes out our restorative spaces. The concept of the “Heterogeneous Home” was developed to explore solutions for leveraging design and technology to create environments that are offer variations, and are thus able to provide restorative space. You can download the complete Heterogeneous Home sketchbook. [link to article]

Design Versus Innovation: The Cranbrook / IIT Debate
In this interview, Scott Klinker and Jeremy Alexis explore the two contrasting approaches to design education embodied by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and Cranbrook Academy of Art. These oposing perspectives have evolved over the past 20 years into "design" and "design thinking" (also referred to as "innovation"). The former is an experimental and semantic approach, while the latter is methods driven and scientific one. In other words, ITT places stronger emphasis on the importance of observing user needs and behaviors as the basis of design, whereas Cranbrook focuses on the role that artistic inspiration and cultural impulses play in the creation of great design.

Here are some of the interesting questions adresses in this piece: what I'd the role of design in innovation? Or innovation in design? Is design being led astray by too much business thinking? Is design thinking useful without design making? [link to article]

What is Interactions? Are There Different Types?
This was my favorite article from this issue of Interactions. It provides a valuabl overview regarding interactions (including a summary of common interaction models. For my own selfish reasons I am going to provide a slightly more in depth analysis of this piece. There are three different perspectives on interaction that are outlined by the author:

The design-theory view: This is a broad perspective that views all design as design for interaction. It stipulates that all objects created by humans are developed for some type of interaction because to use a product one must interact with it. For example, a chair and a book are designed for interaction, the former for sitting the latter for reading.

The HCI-view This perspective views all interactions as an instance of a feedback loop. "information flows from a system (perhaps a computer or car) through a person and back through the system again." in this view of interaction it is assumed that the person has a goal and that his/her actions are carried out with this goal in mind. Their actions have an impact on the system or environment, which is measured and compared against the goal to determine the next action.

The HCI definition of interaction focuses on dynamic systems only. Static systems such as chairs and books are not considered interactive. There are several variations on the concept of feedback loop. The most well known variation that reflect an HCI perspective are Don Norman's and Bill Verplanks models of interactions.




The Systems-Theory View: simple feedback loop models are useful but somewhat abstract. In these models the person and the system are closely coupled and the nature of the system (and the person) is left unspecified. Once you begin to characterize the system and the person involved in an interaction you can distinguish between various types of systems that emerge. The systems-theory view explores and maps the relationships between these various types of systems.

According to this school of thought, “the process of clicking on a link to summon a new webpage is not “interaction”; it is “reaction.”” In a reaction, the coupling between input and output are fixed. This means that a given action will always produce the same effect. For example, when you click a link on a standard webpage the server acts in pretty much the same way as an automatic door when you walk within the range of its sensors – it reacts. The term interaction only refers to systems where the coupling between output and input is dynamic. There are several other different types of systems explored in this article, including linear, closed-loop, recirculating, self-regulating, first-order, second-order, self-adjusting, and learning. [link to article]