Chapter+One

Chapter One
Designing Interactive Systems: A Fusion of Skills

Interactive Systems need to be both usable for the task at hand but should also be considerate of the user experience. • The Product should be easy and enjoyable to use. • Part of the values of “being human centred” (Page 14)—the wants and needs of the users are considered first and the technology tailored toward those wants and needs.

The key concerns of designers of Interactive Systems: • DESIGN: what is design and how should you do it? • TECHNOLOGIES: the interactive systems, products, devices and components themselves • PEOPLE: who will use the systems and whose lives we would like to make better through our designs • ACTIVITIES AND CONTEXTS: what people want to do and the contexts within which those activities take place (Page 10)

Design can be scientific based or creative, most design incorporates the two.

The user interface of interactive system are the parts of the systems people come in contact with, physically (buttons and knobs), perceptually (screens or noises) and conceptually (figuring out how to work the device using knowledge from the outside world and what we already know: see affordance, one of Norman’s design principles, in which the design of the object suggests it use to the user, page 65), when using a device (Page 12).

Information Appliances (Norman in Benyon, Page 18) • Appliances should be everyday things that require everyday skills • Appliances have a clear, focused function that can be used in a variety of circumstances • Peer-to-peer interaction • Direct user interface • Closure • Immediacy • Personal and Portable

Sociology, anthropology (ethnography especially) and psychology are help tools for interactive system designers to understand and design for people. (Page 21)

Understanding the hardware and software of different technologies is important for interactive systems designers to help different devices communicate. (Page 22)

Understanding the “community of practice” a new technology will be placed in helps interactive systems designers to tailor to different individual needs. (Page 23)

Human-centred design can be more expensive but is more advantageous in the long run (Page 24-25): • Safety concerns are addressed • Effectiveness—productivity and acceptability • Ethics—intellectual property and respecting different viewpoints

Benyon, David, Phil Turner and Susan Turner. __Designing Interactive Systems: People, Activities, Contexts and Technologies__. England: Pearson Education Limited, 2005.

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