IT 312 – Human-Computer Interaction

Process of Interaction Design

Process of Interaction Design
Objectives
• Explain some of the advantages of involving users in development.
• Explain the main principles of a user-centered approach.
• Introduce the four basic activities of interaction design and how they are related in a simple
lifecycle model.
• Consider how interaction design activities can be integrated into other development
lifecycles.
Introduction
• Design a cloud-based service to enable people to share and curate their photos, movies, music,
chats, documents, and so on, in an efficient, safe, and enjoyable way.

• What would you do? How would you start?

• Begin by sketching how the interface might look, work out how the system architecture should be
structured, or just start coding

• Start by asking users about their current experiences with sharing files and examine the existing
tools, for example, Dropbox and Google Drive.

• Based on this begin thinking about how you were going to design the new service

• Fields of design having its own approach and commonalities

• graphic design, architectural design, industrial design, and software design
What Is Involved in Interaction Design?
• Interaction design activities
• Discovering requirements for the
product,
• Designing something to fulfill those
requirements,
• Producing prototypes that are then
evaluated.

• Interaction design focuses attention

on users and their goals.
Double Diamond of Design
• Discover: Designers try to gather insights about the problem.
• Define: Designers develop a clear brief that frames the design challenge.
• Develop: Solutions or concepts are created, prototyped, tested, and iterated.
• Deliver: The resulting project is finalized, produced, and launched.
Understanding the Problem Space
• Deciding what to design is key, and exploring the problem space is one way in which to decide.

• The first phase in the double diamond

• working out how to design the physical interface
• technologies and interaction styles to use (use multi-touch, voice, graphical user interface, heads-up display,
augmented reality, gesture-based)

• Why a change is needed, and how this change will improve the user experience.

• Designing for a new user experience,

• it requires understanding the context for which it will be used and the possible current user expectations.

• The process of articulating the problem space is typically done as a team effort.
• project manager is concerned about a proposed solution in terms of budgets, timelines, and staffing costs
• software engineer will be breaking down specific technical concepts
The Importance of Involving Users
• Involving users in development is important because it’s the best way to ensure that
the end product is usable and that it indeed will be used.

• It was common for developers to talk only to managers, experts, or proxy users, or
even to use their own judgment without reference to anyone else.

• Involving others in designing the product can provide useful information, however, it
does not have the same perspective as the target user who will use the intended
product on a regular basis.

• In commercial projects, product owner filters user and customer input and has
business and technical knowledge, but not interaction design knowledge, and they
are rarely a direct user of the product.
Degrees of User Involvement
• Individual users may be co-opted onto the design team so that they are major
contributors to the development.

• Having a user engaged full or part-time does mean that the input is available
continually throughout development.

• Users may take part in specific activities to inform the development or to

evaluate designs once they are available.

• Cooperative design or co-design, central actors in creation activities for whom

systems, technologies, and services are being designed.
What Is a User-Centered Approach?
• Early focus on users and tasks. Understanding who the users will be by directly
studying their cognitive, behavioral, anthropomorphic, and attitudinal
characteristics.

• Empirical measurement. The reactions and performance of intended users to

printed scenarios, manuals, and so forth, are observed and measured. Later,
users interact with simulations and prototypes, and their performance and
reactions are observed, recorded, and analyzed.

• Iterative design. More tests and observations are carried out to see the effects
of the fixes with cycles of design-test-measure-redesign being repeated as
often as necessary.
Early Focus on Users and Tasks
• Users’ tasks and goals are the driving force behind the development.

• Users’ behavior and context of use are studied, and the system is designed to
support them.

• Users’ characteristics are captured and designed for.

• Users are consulted throughout development from earliest phases to the latest.

• All design decisions are taken within the context of the users, their activities,
and their environment.
Basic Activities of Interaction Design
• Discovering requirements for the interactive product

• Designing alternatives that meet those requirements

• Prototyping the alternative designs so that they can be communicated and

assessed

• Evaluating the product and the user experience it offers throughout the
process
Discovering Requirements
• Understanding the target users and the support an interactive product
• Gleaned through data gathering and analysis.
• Forms the basis of the product’s requirements and underpins subsequent
design and development.
Designing Alternatives
• Proposing ideas for meeting the requirements.

• Conceptual design describes an abstraction outlining what people can do with

a product and what concepts are needed to understand how to interact with it.

• Concrete design considers the detail of the product including the colors,
sounds, and images to use, menu design, and icon design.
Prototyping
• The most effective way for users to evaluate designs is to interact through prototyping.

• Different prototyping techniques

• paper-based prototypes are quick and cheap to build and are effective for identifying
problems in the early stages of design
• role-playing users can get a real sense of what it will be like to interact with the product.

• Prototyping is often used to overcome potential client misunderstandings and to test the
technical feasibility of a suggested design and its production.
• It involves producing a limited version of the product with the purpose of answering specific
questions about the design’s feasibility or appropriateness.
• Prototypes give a better impression of the user experience than simple descriptions
• When a deployable version of the product is available, another way to choose between
alternative designs is to deploy two different variations called A/B testing and collect data
from actual use that is then used to inform the choice.
Evaluating
• Determining the usability and acceptability of the product or design measured
in terms of a variety of usability and user-experience criteria.

• Evaluation ensures that the final product is fit for its intended purpose.
Interaction Design Lifecycle Model
• Lifecycle model (or process model) is
used to represent a model that
captures a set of activities and how
they are related.

• Many projects start by discovering

requirements from which alternative
designs are generated.

• Prototype versions of the designs are

developed and then evaluated to
refine the requirements or to
redesign.
Some Practical Issues
• Users: Wide collection of people that can influence or be influenced by the success or failure of a project.

• Users’ Needs: Investigating the users and their activities to discover requirements and decide what to build

• Generate alternative designs:

• Alternatives come from seeking different perspectives and looking at other designs.
• Keep familiar elements to retain the same user experience when producing an upgrade to an existing system

• Choose alternatives
• Choosing among alternatives is mostly about making design decisions
• Let users and stakeholders interact with the design and discuss their experiences, preferences, and suggestions for improvement

• Integrate interaction design activities with other lifecycle models

• The latest attempts to integrate practices was focus on agile software development. The most well-known of these are eXtreme Programming
(Beck and Andres, 2005), Scrum (Schwaber and Beedle, 2002), and Kanban (Anderson, 2010). The Dynamic Systems Development Method
(DSDM) (DSDM, 2014). These methods stress the importance of iteration, early and repeated user feedback, being able to handle emergent
requirements, and striking a good balance between flexibility and structure. They also all emphasize collaboration, face-to-face
communication, streamlined processes to avoid unnecessary activities, and the importance of practice over process, that is, of getting work
done.
Key Points
• It is important to have a good understanding of the problem space before trying to build anything.

• Four basic activities on interaction design process: discover requirements, design alternatives that meet those
requirements, prototype the designs so that they can be communicated and assessed, and evaluate them.

• Three principles of interaction design and user-centered design: early focus on users and tasks, empirical
measurement, and iterative design.

• Involving users in the design process assists with expectation management and feelings of ownership should
have careful planning.

• The key to effective design is looking at others’ designs and involving other people in design to provide useful
inspiration and encourages designers to consider alternative design solutions.

• Prototyping is a useful technique for facilitating user feedback on designs at all stages.

• Interaction design activities are becoming better integrated with lifecycle models from other related disciplines
such as software engineering.
Activity: Paperless Election System
• Discover: gather insights about the problem.
• Define: develop a clear brief that frames the design challenge.
• Develop: created, prototyped, tested, and iterated solutions or concepts
• Deliver: finalized, produced, and launched project