Design Is a Big Word

The theme of this book is that interactive products need to be designed by interaction designers instead of by software engineers. This assertion often generates instant antagonism from programmers who have been doing design all along. Furthermore, these programmers fear that by taking design away from them, I'm taking away the best and most creative aspect of their work, leaving them condemned to coding drudgery unleavened with fun. This is absolutely untrue. Their worry stems only from the imprecise nature of the term design.

The entire software-creation process includes design, all the way from selecting the programming language to choosing the color of the delivery truck. No aspect of this lengthy and involved process is more design-filled than the programming itself. Programmers make design decisions at every step of their process. The programmer must decide how each procedure will call each other procedure, how information and status will be shared, stored, and changed, and how the code's validity will be guaranteed. All of these decisions and the millions more like them are design decisions, and the success of each one depends on the programmer's ability to bring her experience and judgment to bear.

I draw a simple dividing line through this sea of design. I put the part of the design that will directly affect the ultimate end user of the product on one side. On the other side is all other design. In this book, when I speak of "interaction design," I am referring only to the former. I call the remaining design that doesn't affect the end user program design.

It is not possible to base the dividing line on purely technical criteria. It cannot be expressed in terms that are familiar to engineers because the differentiating factor is human, not technical, and engineering rules aren't applicable to people. For example, the interaction designer typically is agnostic about issues such as which programming language is to be used. However, occasionally the choice of language affects response time, which most assuredly is an interaction issue, and the designer will have something to say.

Almost all interaction design refers to the selection of behavior, function, and information and their presentation to users. End-product interaction design is the only part of the design that I want to take away from programmers and put into the hands of dedicated interaction designers.