Understanding and Conceptualizing Interaction

Understanding and Conceptualizing Interaction

1. Understanding the Problem Space and Conceptualizing Interaction

   • Questions to aid design teams in this process
     • Are there problems with an existing product or user experience? If so, what are they?
     • Why do you think there are problems?
     • How do you think your proposed design ideas might overcome these?
   • Benefits of conceptualizing the design space:
     • Orientation
     • Open-mindedness
     • Common Ground

2. Conceptual Models

   • A high-level description of how a system is organized and operates. It enables designers to straighten out their thinking before they star laying out heir widgets
     • Interface Metaphors
       • They are a central component of a conceptual model. They provide familiar entities that enable peopler to readily understand the underlying conceptual model and what to do at an interface.

3. Interaction Types

   • Instructing: users issue instructions to a system
   • Conversing: users have a dialog with a system
   • Manipulating: Users interact with objects in a virtual or physical space by manipulating them
   • Exploring: users move through a virtual environment or a physical space.

4. Paradigms, Visions, Theories, Models, and Frameworks

   • Paradigms: adopting a set of practices that a community has agreed upon
   • Visions: are a driving force that frame research and development in interaction design
   • Theories: they provide a means of analyzing and predicting the performance of users carrying out tasks
   • Models: typically abstracted from a they coming from a contributing discipline that can be directly applied to interaction design
   • Frameworks: they help designers constrain and scope the user experience for which they are designing