A Working Language for Interaction Design

Physical scientists develop and use terms specific to their discipline. These terms not only illuminate the specific process or object at hand, but they influence how we think about them. How can one scientist express to another a question, a concern, or a discovery? A technical working language is the cornerstone of every science, from the study of spiders to the behavior of printing presses.

The computer industry is no exception. We have a rich and complex language to describe the nuances of the field—words like concurrency, recursion, and compiler. These, however, are engineering terms. We have no such similarly rich language in the world of interaction design. This needs to change.

We've all heard discussions describing the efficiency or user-friendliness of digital artifacts and interfaces. But when someone speaks of an efficient user interface, is he referring to the code? To the number of controls? To the ease of programming? Ease-of-learning? Ease-of-use? Certainly, these words conjure up images in the minds of intelligent, technical people, but vague imagery is not sufficient to successfully and systematically design the interactions between humans and complex digital systems.

The lack of consistent, specific terminology in the world of interaction design frustrates the efforts of designers. Without precise terminology, we are forced to hand-wave. Without clearly differentiated terms, we accidentally put things in the wrong places, we overlook significant facts, and we inadvertently mistake the bad for the good.

To design effective digital products, we must have a vocabulary that accurately describes the goals we seek and the tools we use to achieve them. Interaction design will not become a true science, art, or craft until we create our own technical working language. We will not develop a successful practice until we develop accurate and analytical ways of thinking and talking about what we do. Not only can't we function effectively, but our credibility to the outside world—particularly to the worlds of software engineering and business—is threatened unless we can agree on terms that describe what we do, what we care about, and how to judge our relative success at achieving our goals.