Chapter 2. Starting Points

There are few things as professionally daunting to a new interaction designer as starting a project. Projects generally begin for one of two reasons: something is broken or something doesn't exist. "Users are complaining about X!" a business manager will exclaim. "We need to do Y!" (Even though Y might not be the solution, it's the interaction designer's job to figure that out.) Or else someone, somewhere, muses, "Wouldn't it be great if we could do Z?" and, if resources such as money, time, and brain power (that's where interaction designers come in) can be found, the project begins.

But once a project is launched, how does an interaction designer get started? What tools and methods do designers use to come up with solutions? Although many working today insist there's one wayuser-centered design (UCD)to work, this simply isn't true. There are several ways to approach problems, as we'll discuss later in this chapter. But first, let's talk a little about problems themselves.