Interaction Versus Interface Design


"Interaction" Versus "Interface" Design

I prefer the term interaction design to the term interface design because "interface" suggests that you have code over here, people over there, and an interface in between that passes messages between them. It implies that only the interface is answerable to the users' needs. The consequence of isolating design at the interface level is that it licenses programmers to reason like this: "I can code as I please because an 'interface' will be slapped on after I'm done." It postpones design until after programming, when it is too late.

Like putting an Armani suit on Attila the Hun, interface design only tells how to dress up an existing behavior. For example, in a data-reporting tool, interface design would eliminate unnecessary borders and other visual clutter from a table of figures, color code important points, provide rich visual feedback when the user clicks on data elements, and so on. This is better than nothing, but far from sufficient. Microsoft invests many millions of dollars on interface design, but its products remain universally unloved.

Behavioral design tells how the elements of the software should act and communicate. In our example, behavioral design tells us what tools you could apply to that table of figures, how you might include averages or totals. Interaction designers also work from the outside in, starting from the goals the user is trying to achieve, with an eye toward the broader goals of the business, the capabilities of the technology, and the component tasks.

You can go still deeper to what we call conceptual design, which considers what is valuable for the users in the first place. In our example, conceptual design might tell you that examining a table of figures is only an incidental task; the users' real goal is spotting trends, which means that you don't want to create a reporting tool at all, but a trend-spotting tool. To deliver both power and pleasure to users, interaction designers think first conceptually, then in terms of behavior, and last in terms of interface.



Inmates Are Running the Asylum, The. Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy &How to Restore the Sanity - 2004 publication
ISBN: B0036HJY9M
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 170

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