visual icons for interactivity

My co-worker, Aaron Straup Cope, reminded me about the work of Timo Arnall today. Arnall's work on graphic language for touch resonated and inspired me to sketch out some graphic language ideas of my own.

Talking / Connecting

Let's see if I can keep it up.

[IxD Studio] The Water Project

The last project in IxD studio was to envision the future of water and to share that vision.

My group (Shaili Das, Ramune Rastonis, and Vida Riahi) decided to look at the future of the oceans. We wanted to create a space that would cause people to consider the way their choices impact the environment, without being judgmental or preachy.

'Oceans' is a pretty vast subject; given the scope of the project, we needed to keep a narrow our focus and create something simple. We wanted to create a sensory space where people could take a minute to sit, contemplate, relax, escape, and be mesmerized. Our inspirations were, not surprisingly, mostly aquariums.

[IxD Theory] Reflections

Reflect on how this course has affected your perspective as a designer. What has changed? What has stayed the same? In what ways are you more confident and what gaps do you still feel you have?

Hi Arna,

Thank you. Interaction theory has been one of my favorite courses this first year in the grad design program at CCA; it has been instrumental in helping me define where I want to go and why I came back to school in the first place.

[IxD Theory] Frontiers

What is the next frontier for connectivity? What will make it stick?

For many of us in developed nations, technology constantly demands our attention. It's hard to imagine being much more connected that we already are, but increased connectivity seems unavoidable. Since our dependence and desire for connected devices will only increase, maybe the answer is to change the manner in which we connect. I hope that the next frontier for connectivity will be ubiquitous computing. One definition of ubiquitous computing that resonates with me is "machines that fit the human environment instead of forcing humans to enter theirs."

[IxD Theory] Easy Peasy

Why does everyone think they can do interaction design? Do other design disciplines face this challenge?

I don't have direct experience with everyone thinking they can do interaction design, but assuming that is the case, I will speculate on the reasons why.

1. Interaction is a buzz word. I think because interaction design is such a new field and it's, uh...for lack of better phrase, so hot right now, there are a lot of people out there who want an interaction designer and a lot of people who don't really know what it is, but who want to get the job. 
2. Interaction designers make it look easy. A well designed object or system is universally easy to use, which can lead to the assumption that designing the interaction is simple. I think a lot of the principles of interaction design are actually common sense (keep it simple, recognition over recall, help and documentation, give people an undo), but to really design a system which meets a user's need becomes incredibly complicated. An interaction designer has to use methodology and go through deliberate processes, which not everyone can do.

[IxD Theory] Parking app

What’s your pet app idea? Based on the tools and processes that Aaron shared, discuss the minimum essential features, as well as elements that are not essential that you would want to add after launch. 

The first two things that came to mind in response to this prompt were a drinking fountain finding app and a public restroom finding app. Buuuuut, they already exist. So here's one that doesn't exist: an app to prevent you from getting parking tickets.

[IxD Theory] Cognition

Discuss a product via the lens of human cognition. How do we process the product? Consider perception, attention, memory, learning, etc. What did the designers do to help simplify the cognitive processes required to use the product? What’s the mental model and how rigorously is it preserved?

I'm going to look at iTunes because it is a product we process through multiple kinds of cognition -- learning, listening, attention, and memory.

The function which lets you sort by album cover is great because it takes advantage of our ability to quickly scan images. I have over 1000 albums in my library, and while I often cannot remember the name of the album, I can often picture the album cover in my head. Scanning through the music by cover view helps me to find the correct album much faster than reading through the list, and trying to remember what I'm looking for.

[interaction practice] final project

(Going back and doing some blogging catch-up this week from the fall semester. Also, eek gad, how is it already the mid-point of spring semester!?) 

I'm not going to lie, this class was a source of tears...more than once.

Learning a programming language is really hard, but getting through it and building something you're proud of is pretty awesome.

[IxD Studio] Collections, 2

The collections project continues.

I found that most of the letters in my collection report everything to be “fine.” Knowing a bit about the history, it is pretty safe to say that everything was not fine. This week I tried to focus the display on the idea of contrasting what people write or say versus what they actually mean. I think reporting that things are just “fine” is a knee-jerk reaction because, generally, people don’t want to burden others with their personal struggles.

[Interaction Theory]

Have you experienced a technology that has truly disappeared? Describe the experience and why the technology disappeared. What replaced the technology in the forefront?

One technology that has truly disappeared in my life is the technology behind search engines. It is hard to believe that Google has been around for just about a decade and a half.

[IxD Theory] interactive distance and autonomous cars

Pick an interactive product you use regularly and discuss how the interactions would change if you suddenly interacted with it from a very different distance. Besides the actual points of interactivity, how would the product as a whole change as a result of the new interactive distance?

In the (slightly racist) explanation of Edward Hall's Proxemic Theory, Em Griffin gives us an understanding of Intimate, Personal, Social, and Public distances. I believe our current driving experience is generally an intimate experience between driver and car. We interact with our car at less than 18 inches and our main way of judging the space is through touch and smell. We're not operating our cars with our voices, and certainly not operating them with our eyes.

[IxD Studio] Reflections on Collections

For our interaction design studio class we're doing a project on collections. I don't collect much, but I do have this box of letters and snapshots that belonged to my grandparents. Most of the letters are written in Japanese, and all of the snapshots are completely anonymous. Why am I keeping this stuff? I'm not really sure, but I think my initial desire to save the letters and photos has to do with the aesthetic value -- their appeal as visual artifacts.

[IxD Theory] Goals

Reflect on your own goals as an interaction designer. What is your personal flavor of interaction? What part of interaction design excites you the most?

My goals as an interaction designer are, at their core, the same goals I had as a graphic designer. I want to use design to make a difference in people's lives, to solve problems, and to communicate meaningful stories. I majored in graphic design in college because because it was a compromise with my parents; they were pushing for engineering or architecture, I was pushing for studio art, design was a reasonable compromise.

I loved what I was doing in school, I graduated, I found a job.

But my jobs after college didn't fulfill my goals. Far too often I found myself at the mercy of my clients, churning out brochures and banner ads that "popped." Graphic design turned stale and, to be honest, I did it with half of my brain turned off. (Here's another goal as an interaction designer: I want to be challenged.) Perhaps this was my own fault for staying with clients who didn't value my perspective and problem solving abilities as a designer. I knew something was missing but I didn't really have the language to describe what exactly it was.

[IxD Theory] Foundational Principles

Are some of the foundational principles more important than others? If so, which ones? Why are some more important than others? Can you point to examples that illustrate the hierarchy you propose? Consider both Neilson’s and Norman’s lists.

I do not think the answer to the first question in this prompt is fixed; which principles are most important really depends on the application and the goals of the interaction. The question of who will be experiencing the designed interaction (Who are the users?) and what is their connection with the experience (eg. Are they likely to be novice or expert users?) should guide which principles will be most important. For example, if you are designing a museum exhibit, then you can probably be less concerned with "Recognition rather than recall" and more concerned with "Affordances" and "Mapping."

That being said, I do have some pet principles that I am particularly drawn to. From Nielsen's list, I like Flexibility and efficiency of use and from Donald Norman I like the principle of Mapping.

[studio 0] food for thought...

How do we convince people to eat healthier foods?

For this project I interviewed my classmate Chris. Chris is young, healthy, and busy. He is highly motivated to cook meals at home, but does not have a lot of experience cooking and is afraid healthy meals will take too much time, so often ends up eating out.