What This Book Is and What It Is Not

This book is a reference volume on the methods and principles of interaction design: the design of complex, user-focused behaviors of interactive systems. Section One of this book stresses design process and systematic understanding of the user. Section Two provides strategic principles and tools. Section Three delves deeper into tactical issues.

This book does not attempt to present a style guide or set of interface standards. In fact, you'll learn in Chapter 19 why the utility of such tools is limited and relevant only to specific circumstances. That said, the process and principles described in this book are compatible with the style guide of your choice, and it is an excellent companion volume to any of them. Style guides are good at answering what, but generally weak at answering why. This book attempts to answer those unanswered questions about the design of interactive systems.

There are four main steps when designing interactive systems: researching the domain, understanding the users and their requirements, defining the framework of a solution, and filling in the design details.

Many practitioners would include a fifth step: validation, the testing of the validity of that solution with users. They wouldn't be wrong. This latter step is part of a discipline widely known as usability.

There is a significant and ever-growing body of usability literature, but there is comparatively little in print about interaction design. This book focuses exclusively on the process and principles of interaction design, leaving instruction on the testing of design solutions to the many scholarly works published on the subject. This book should be a companion to any volume on usability engineering methods and practices. You will always achieve the best design results by combining the two disciplines in a harmonious relationship.




About Face 2.0(c) The Essentials of Interaction Design
About Face 2.0(c) The Essentials of Interaction Design
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 263

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