The reality of interaction design..

A news article from the BBC's web site part of a series inviting some of the world's leading technologists to speculate about the future, Greg Papadopoulos, chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems, calls for technology and design to be married to people's needs.

just a few key extracts that show I think can show how interaction design along with the aspect of user centered design techniques can move technology forward the way which is so clearly discussed by Greg Papadopoulos

As a technologist, when I look at the artefact's that we're thrusting onto the world they contain a lot of historical baggage and biases because we simply carry on the assumptions from the past. Things really could be a lot simpler.

All too often, it's like we're asked to care for these things that we really shouldn't care about - and that ranges from mobile phones to personal computers - rather than asking the technology designers to build tools with us in mind.

Think about the voicemail system on your cell phone. It's really bad.

You get the messages linearly, you are told that you have five new voicemails and you don't know what's from whom or the content of each message.

To organise your messages, you have to dial through with ridiculous key sequences. Making it worse, you can't choose a better system as you have to take voicemail from your mobile service provider.

But that's just one example of how the legacy of design holds us back. PCs are full of old designs.

He goes on to conclude..

Take a comparison between a Swiss army knife and a suite of kitchen tools as an example of something that's well designed.

If I really had to open a bottle of wine with a multitool, I would. But mostly, I'll have a corkscrew, a good chef's knife, scissors, and a nail file. Each one is a separate object, with incredibly simple interfaces. Each was designed for a specific purpose.

Rather than making our technologies increasingly complex to use, the same kind of design should be done on the technology we use.

There could be all kinds of computing behind something I use on a daily basis, but at basic level, that's not what I'm interested in. Instead I want an appliance that has a very well-defined and simple function.

Today we're asked to care about things that we really do not want to care about. I don't want the technology artefact or its management to be one of my objectives.

I would say that there has been laziness or a lack of courage by some technology developers, because we could go and redesign our entire system of computing.

But to do that upsets a whole bunch of assumptions and even more technological ecosystems, like the software makers who sell us software to run on PCs.

It is this that a reflection on what has been done with the design of technology, and so with this can question how technology can become closer and be able to integrate more fully with the actual requirements of the users.

the full article link - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6225398.stm

The understanding of Design...

In order to have a strong foundation (I hope) thoughts and questions have been reading to understand what design is and what it means to be involved in interaction design, this will be an on going process but have a collected an initial few interpretations of what design is and read through several points which I can relate to and at this point in time agree with.

Some of the thoughts I have I have come across which I particularly liked.

“design… deserves attention not only as a professional practice but as a subject of social, cultural, and philosophic investigation.”
Richard Buchanan and Victor Margolin.

“Designers solve problems for clients. Artists solve problems for humanity. The latter is the greatest problem.”
John Maeda.

“Design addresses itself to the need.” - And is this why bad design just lets the needs of users Charles Eames. down ?


This has also lead to questioning of understanding design, and have come across several interpretations as expected. Though have been most intrigued by a designer called Charles Eames and his thoughts, the following is extracts from an interview with the designer.

Q -What is your definition of design ?
A - A arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose

Q -Is design an expression of art form?
A -The design is an expression of the purpose. It may (if it is good enough) later be judged as art

Q - What are the boundaries of of design ?
A - What are the boundaries of the problems ?

Q - Does the creation of a design admit constraints ?
A - Design depends largely on constraints.

Q - What constraints ?
A - The sum of all constraints. Here is one of the of the few effective keys to the design
problem - the ability of the designer to recognise as many of the constraints as possible -
his willingness and enthusiasm for working within these constraints - the constraints of
price, of size of strength, balance, of surface, of time etc.;each problem has its own
peculiar list.

Q - does design obey laws ?
A - Aren't constraints enough ?


I am pretty sure that there should be no hard and fast definition as design in itself is a complex and unique problem in each context to which it is applied and always open to interpretation

but can also understand how design should be about form and function running in parallel
and not form following function, which is why I like the following.

"Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
Frank Lloyd Wright.


Understanding from chapter 10 of Designing interactions Bill Moggridge

The begining

From starting my PhD on 23 April 2007 a brief overview of my of my status so far ....

Initial investigation into a physical and electronic lab book and an initial investigation into the research - currently ongoing.


An investigation into my own personal note taking methods, conducted as have been making a large amount of notes on research ideas, so study was to make notes in a notebook for a week and then an electronic notebook the following week - helped provide useful personal insight
into the ways which electronic and physical note taking are very different. Write up of findings for a short report in progress.


Heuristic evaluation of existing lab book software, the original idea has changed slightly as had problems in order to understand the perspective of how to evaluate effectively, in order to aid and help over come this a persona and scenario have been constructed to help to give a more objective evaluation.

- other thoughts at the moment just looking how can help document ideas further, initial idea using memory mapping and looking at finding some appropriate software.