1

What Is Interaction
CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

Every m o m e n t of every day, millions of people send e-mail, talk on mobile

phones, instant message each other, record TV shows on digital video
recorders (DVRs), a n d listen to music on M P 3 players. All of these things
are made possible by good engineering. But it's interaction design that
makes t h e m usable, useful, a n d fun.

You benefit from good interaction design every time you:

> Go to an automatic teller m a c h i n e (ATM) a n d w i t h d r a w cash with a

few simple touches on a screen.

fc- Become engrossed in a computer game.

*• Cut and paste cells on a spreadsheet.

* Buy s o m e t h i n g online.

p Twitter from your mobile phone.

f>- U p d a t e y o u r status on Facebook.

But the reverse is often also t r u e . We suffer from poor interaction design all
around us. T h o u s a n d s of interaction design problems wait to be solved—
such as w h e n you:

>>• Try to use t h e self-checkout at a grocery store a n d it takes y o u half

a n hour.

»• Can't get your car to tell you what's wrong with it when it breaks down.

*»• Wait at a bus stop with no idea w h e n t h e next bus will arrive,

a* Struggle to synchronize y o u r mobile p h o n e to your computer.

Can't figure out how to set the clock in your microwave oven.

A n y t i m e behavior—how a product works—is involved, interaction designers

could be involved. Indeed, for the best experience, they should be involved.

Back in 1990, Bill Moggridge (Figure 1.1), a principal of the design firm
IDEO, realized that for some t i m e he a n d some of his colleagues had been
creating a very different kind of design. It wasn't product design exactly, but
they were definitely designing p r o d u c t s . N o r was it c o m m u n i c a t i o n design,
although they used some of that discipline's tools as well. It wasn't computer
science either, although a lot of it h a d to do with computer? and software.
No, this was s o m e t h i n g different. It drew on all those disciplines, but was
s o m e t h i n g else, a n d it h a d to do with c o n n e c t i n g people t h r o u g h the prod-
ucts they used. Moggridge called this n e w practice interaction design.
 WHAT ARE INTERACTIONS A N D INTERACTION DESIGN? 3

In t h e decades since then, interaction design has

grown from a tiny, specialized discipline to one
practiced by tens of t h o u s a n d s of people all over
t h e world, m a n y of w h o m don't call themselves
interaction designers and may n o t even be aware
of the discipline. Universities n o w offer degrees
in it, and you'll find practitioners of interaction
design at every major software a n d design firm,
as well as in b a n k s such as Wells Fargo, hospitals
such as the Mayo Clinic, a n d appliance m a n u f a c -
turers such as Whirlpool.
Figure 1,1
The rise of t h e commercial Internet in the m i d 1990s a n d t h e widespread
Bill Moggridge,
i n c o r p o r a t i o n of microprocessors into machines such as cars, dishwashers,
author of Designing
a n d phones where previously they hadn't been used led to this explosive
Interactions and
g r o w t h in the n u m b e r of interaction designers because suddenly a mul-
industrial designer for
titude of serious interaction problems needed to be solved. O u r gadgets
one of the first laptop
b e c a m e digital, as did our workplaces, homes, t r a n s p o r t a t i o n , a n d com-
computers, the G R i D
m u n i c a t i o n devices. O u r everyday stuff temporarily b e c a m e unfamiliar to
Compass, coined
us; the confusion we once collectively had about how to set the clock on
the term "interaction
t h e VCR spread to o u r entire lives. We had to relearn how to dial a p h o n e
design" after being
n u m b e r a n d w o r k the stereo and use o u r computers. It was the initial prac-
talked out of the term
titioners of interaction design—mostly coming from other disciplines—
"soft-face."
who helped us begin to m a k e sense of our newly digitized world a n d the
Internet, a n d these same people, n o w aided by new interaction designers,
continue to refine a n d practice t h e craft as our devices, and o u r world, grow
ever m o r e complex.

What Are Interactions and Interaction Design?

A l t h o u g h we experience examples of good a n d bad interaction design every
day, interaction design as a discipline is tricky to define. In p a r t , this is
the result of its interdisciplinary roots: in industrial a n d c o m m u n i c a t i o n
design, h u m a n factors, a n d h u m a n - c o m p u t e r interaction. It's also because a
lot of interaction design is invisible, functioning b e h i n d t h e scenes. W h y do
t h e W i n d o w s a n d Mac operating systems, which basically do t h e s a m e t h i n g
a n d can, with s o m e t i n k e r i n g , even look identic a\,feel so different? Interac-
tion design is about behavior, a n d behavior is m u c h h a r d e r to observe a n d
4 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

u n d e r s t a n d t h a n appearance. It's m u c h easier to notice a n d discuss a garish

color t h a n a subtle transaction that may, over t i m e , drive you crazy.

Figure 1.2 An interaction, grossly speaking, is a transaction between two entities, t y p -

Designed by ically an exchange of information, but it can also be an exchange of goods
Marc Andreessen, or services. This book is called Designing for Interaction because it is this
the Mosaic browser sort of exchange that interaction designers try to engender in their work.
(which eventually Interaction designers design for the possibility of interaction. The interac-
evolved into Netscape tion itself takes place between people, m a c h i n e s , a n d systems, in a variety
Navigator) was a of combinations.
fantastic piece of
interaction design,
making the W e b Three Ways of Looking at Interaction Design
accessible to everyday There are t h r e e major schools of t h o u g h t when it comes to defining interac-
people. It introduced tion design:
interaction design
<
•>
• A technology-centered view.
paradigms still in use
today, such as the •>• A behaviorist view.
back button. » The Social Interaction Design view.

W h a t is c o m m o n about all three views is

that interaction design is seen as an a r t — a n
applied art, like furniture m a k i n g ; it's n o t a
science, a l t h o u g h some tried a n d true rules
have emerged (see Chapter 7). Interaction
design is by its n a t u r e contextual: it solves
specific problems u n d e r a p a r t i c u l a r set of cir-
c u m s t a n c e s using t h e available materials. For
example, even t h o u g h a 1994 Mosaic browser
(Figure 1.2) was an excellent piece of interac-
tion design, you wouldn't install it on your
c o m p u t e r now. It served its p u r p o s e for its
time and context.

Like other applied arts, such as architecture, interaction design involves

m a n y m e t h o d s and methodologies in its tasks, and ways of w o r k i n g go in
a n d out of vogue a n d often compete for d o m i n a n c e . Currently, a very user-
centered design m e t h o d o l o g y in which products are generated with users
is in style, b u t this hasn't always been the case, a n d recently these m e t h o d s
 W H Y INTERACTION DESIGN?

have been challenged (see Chapter 2). Microsoft performs extensive user
testing a n d research; Apple, k n o w n for its innovative interaction design,
does very little.

The Technology-Centered View

Interaction designers m a k e technology, particularly digital technology,
useful, usable, a n d pleasurable to use. This is why the rise of software a n d
t h e Internet was also the rise of t h e field of interaction design. Interaction
designers take the raw stuff p r o d u c e d by engineers a n d p r o g r a m m e r s and
mold it into p r o d u c t s that people enjoy using.

The Behaviorist View

As Jodi Forlizzi a n d Robert R e i m a n n succinctly p u t it in 1999 in their pre-
sentation "Interaction Designers: W h a t we are, what we do, & w h a t we need
1
to know," interaction design is about "defining t h e behavior of artifacts,
e n v i r o n m e n t s , a n d systems (for example, products)." This view focuses on
functionality a n d feedback: how products behave a n d provide feedback
based on what t h e people engaged with t h e m are doing.

The Social Interaction Design View

The third, a n d broadest, view of interaction design is that it is inherently
social, revolving a r o u n d facilitating c o m m u n i c a t i o n between h u m a n s
t h r o u g h p r o d u c t s . This perspective is s o m e t i m e s called Social Interaction
Design. Technology is nearly irrelevant in this view; any kind of object or
device can m a k e a connection between people. These c o m m u n i c a t i o n s can
take m a n y forms; they can be one-to-one as with a telephone call, one-to-
m a n y as with a blog, or m a n y - t o - m a n y as with t h e stock m a r k e t .

Why Interaction Design?

The t e r m "design" can be difficult to get a h a n d l e on. Consider this infa-
m o u s sentence by design history scholar John Heskett: "Design is to design
a design to p r o d u c e a design."

1 Download it online at http://goodgeslreet.com/docs/AIGAFortizzi_Reimann2001.pdf

CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS I N T E R A C T I O N DESIGN?

People have m a n y preconceived notions about design, not t h e least of which

is that design concerns only how things look: design as decoration or styl-
ing. A n d while there is n o t h i n g wrong with appealing aesthetics, design can
be m o r e t h a n that. C o m m u n i c a t i o n (graphic) a n d industrial design bring
ways of w o r k i n g that interaction designers embrace as well. Here are some
of the approaches that interaction design employs:

Focusing on Users
Designers k n o w that users don't u n d e r s t a n d or care h o w t h e c o m p a n y that
m a k e s a product is r u n a n d s t r u c t u r e d . They care about d o i n g their tasks
a n d achieving their goals w i t h i n their limits. Designers are advocates for
end users.

Finding Alternatives
Designing isn't about choosing a m o n g multiple options—it's about creating
options, finding a "third option" instead of choosing between two u n d e -
sirable ones. This creation of multiple possible solutions to problems sets
designers apart. Consider, for example, Google's A d W o r d s . The c o m p a n y
needed advertising for revenue, b u t users hated traditional b a n n e r ads.
Thus, designers c a m e up with a t h i r d approach: text ads.

Using Ideation and Prototyping

Designers find their solutions through brainstorming and then, m o s t impor-
tant, building models (Figure 1.3) to test the solutions. Certainly, scientists
a n d architects a n d even accountants model things, but design involves a sig-
nificant difference: design prototypes aren't fixed. Any particular prototype
doesn't necessarily represent the solution, only a solution. It's not u n c o m m o n
to use several prototypes to create a single product. Jeff Hawkins, designer of
the original PalmPilot, famously carried a r o u n d small blocks of wood, pre-
tending to write on t h e m and storing t h e m in his shirt pocket until he c a m e
upon the right size, shape, a n d weight for the device.
 W H Y INTERACTION DESIGN? 7

Figure 1.3

Interaction designers
should plan to create
(and throw away) a
variety of prototypes
of various fidelities to
test their concepts.

Collaborating and Addressing Constraints

Few designers work alone. Designers usually need resources (money, m a t e -
rials, developers, printers, and so on) to produce what they d r e a m up, and
these resources c o m e with their o w n constraints. Designers seldom have
carte blanche to do whatever they want. They m u s t address business goals,
c o m p r o m i s e with teammates, a n d m e e t deadlines. Designing is almost
always a team effort.

Creating Appropriate Solutions

Most designers create solutions that are appropriate only to a particular
project at a p a r t i c u l a r point in time. Designers certainly c a r r y experience
a n d wisdom from one project to t h e next, b u t t h e ultimate solution should
uniquely address the issues of that particular problem. This is n o t to say
that the solution {the product) c a n n o t be used in other contexts—experi-
ence tells us it can a n d will b e — b u t that t h e s a m e exact solution c a n n o t (or
shouldn't anyway) be exactly copied for other projects. A m a z o n has a great
e-commerce model, but it can't be exactly replicated elsewhere (although
pieces of it certainly can be); it works well within t h e context of the A m a z o n
site. Design solutions have to be appropriate to t h e situation.
8 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

Drawing on a Wide Range of Influences

Because design touches on so m a n y subject areas (psychology, ergonom-
ics, economics, engineering, architecture, art, a n d more), designers bring to
the table a broad, multidisciplinary s p e c t r u m of ideas from which to draw
inspiration a n d solutions.

Incorporating Emotion
In analytical t h i n k i n g , e m o t i o n is seen as an i m p e d i m e n t to logic a n d mak-
ing the right choices. In design, products without an emotional c o m p o n e n t
are lifeless a n d do not connect with people. Emotion needs to be thought-
fully included in design decisions. W h a t would the Volkswagen Beetle be
without whimsy?

A (Very) Brief History of Interaction Design

There's a tendency to t h i n k that interaction design b e g a n a r o u n d the t i m e
that Bill Moggridge named it, in 1990, but that's not really t r u e . Interaction
design probably began, a l t h o u g h obviously n o t as a formalized discipline,
in prerecorded history, w h e n Native A m e r i c a n s a n d other tribal peoples
used smoke signals to c o m m u n i c a t e over long distances, a n d t h e Celts a n d
Inuit used stone markers called cairns or i n u k s u i t as l a n d m a r k s , to com-
municate over t i m e (Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4

A modern cairn. In
ancient times, cairns
were used for many
purposes; to mark
mountain summits, as
directional markers,
and as indicators of
burial sites.
 A (VERY) BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERACTION DESIGN 9

1830s to 1940s
M a n y centuries later, in the m i d 1830s, Samuel M o r s e created a system to
t u r n simple electromagnetic pulses into a language of sorts a n d to com-
m u n i c a t e those words over long distances. Over t h e next 50 years, Morse
code a n d t h e telegraph spread across t h e globe (Figure 1.5). M o r s e not only
invented the telegraph, but also the entire system for using it: everything
from t h e electrical systems, to t h e m e c h a n i s m for tapping out t h e code, to
t h e t r a i n i n g of telegraph operators, This didn't h a p p e n overnight, naturally,
b u t the telegraph was t h e first instance of c o m m u n i c a t i o n technology that,
u n l i k e the p r i n t i n g press, was too sophisticated for a small n u m b e r of people
to install and use. It required t h e creators to design an entire system of use.

Figure 1.5

Morse code
transmitter. T h e
telegraph was the
first technology
system that wired the
world—the so-called
"Victorian Internet."

Similarly, other m a s s c o m m u n i c a t i o n technologies, from t h e telephone to

r a d i o to television, required engineers to design systems of use a n d inter-
faces for t h e new technologies. A n d these systems and interfaces were
needed not only for t h e receiving devices—the telephones, radios, a n d tele-
vision sets—but also for the devices used to create and send messages: t h e
telephone switches, microphones, television c a m e r a s , control b o o t h s , and
so on. All of these components required interaction design, a l t h o u g h it cer-
tainly wasn't called that at the time. Indeed, it is very c o m m o n for the first
10 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

practitioners of interaction design in any new platform or m e d i u m to be the

engineers who created t h e technology itself.

But t h e m a c h i n e s that fueled these technologies were, for t h e m o s t p a r t ,

just that: m a c h i n e s . They responded to h u m a n input, certainly, but n o t in
a sophisticated way. They didn't have any awareness that they were being
used. For that, we needed computers.

1940s to 1960s
The first wave of computers—ENIAC a n d its ilk—were engineered, n o t
designed. H u m a n s had to adapt to using t h e m , n o t vice versa, and this
meant speaking t h e m a c h i n e s ' language, not o u r s . Entering a n y t h i n g into
the computer required days plugging in cables or, in later m a c h i n e s , h o u r s
p r e p a r i n g statements on p u n c h cards or paper tape for t h e m a c h i n e to read.
These paper slips were t h e interface (Figure 1.6). Engineers e x p e n d e d very
little design effort to m a k e t h e early computers m o r e usable. Instead, they
worked to m a k e t h e m faster a n d m o r e powerful, so the computers could
solve complicated c o m p u t a t i o n a l problems.

At the same t i m e as these developments were o c c u r r i n g in t h e c o m p u t i n g

field, other disciplines that eventually informed interaction design were

Figure 1.6

Punch cards—one of
the first interfaces
with computers,
as well as a means
of data storage. By
the 1980s, almost
all of them had
been phased out by
command-line or GUI
interfaces.
 A ( V E R Y ) BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERACTION DESIGN

growing, too. Engineers a n d industrial designers such as H e n r y Drey fuss

created t h e new field of h u m a n factors, which focused on t h e design of
products for different sizes a n d shapes of people. The field of ergonomics
focused on workers' productivity and safety, d e t e r m i n i n g the best ways
to perform tasks. Cognitive psychology, focusing on h u m a n learning and
problem solving, experienced a resurgence, led by such academics as Allen
Newell a n d George Miller.

In 1945, Atlantic Monthly published a seminal article titled "As We May

2
T h i n k " (reportedly written in 1936) by Vannevar Bush, in w h i c h he intro-
d u c e d the Memex, a microfilm-based device for storing b o o k s , records, a n d
c o m m u n i c a t i o n s , which is m e c h a n i z e d so that it may be consulted with
exceeding speed and flexibility.

It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a dis-

tance, it is p r i m a r i l y a piece of furniture. On t h e top are slanting translucent
screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There
is a keyboard, a n d sets of b u t t o n s a n d levers. Otherwise it looks like an
o r d i n a r y desk.

The Memex ( F i g u r e 1.7) was Bush's con- Figure 1.7

cept for a u g m e n t i n g h u m a n m e m o r y . One of the drawings
W h i l e just a concept, it was t h e first of Vannevar Bush's
i m a g i n i n g of hypertext, a n d one of t h e Memex device as
first for a desktop c o m p u t i n g system. It it appeared in Life
has influenced generations of interaction magazine in 1945.
designers since, starting with Douglas Note the stylus—an
Engelbart a n d Ted Nelson in t h e 1960s. input device decades
ahead of its time.

1960s to 1970s
As computers b e c a m e m o r e powerful, engineers b e g a n to focus on t h e peo-
ple using computers i n the 1960s, a n d bega n to devise new m e t h o d s of input
a n d new uses for the machines. Engineers added control panels to the front
of computers- allowing input t h r o u g h a complicated series of switches, usu-
ally in combination with a set of p u n c h cards that were processed as a g r o u p
(batch processing).

2 Read it online at http://www theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush

12 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

In 1960, Ted Nelson started his Project X a n a d u , with the goal of creating
computer networks with simple user interfaces. W h i l e it never really c a m e
to fruition, it was t h e first a t t e m p t at a hypertext system. Nelson, in fact,
coined t h e term "hypertext" in 1963.

Figure 1,8 1963 also b r o u g h t Ivan Sutherland's

Sketchpad (Figure 1.8), t h e first
Ivan Sutherland's
Sketchpad. One computer p r o g r a m to utilize a fully

of Sketchpad's graphical user interface a n d a light

innovations was pen for input. Using Sketchpad, users

master drawings of could d r a w b o t h horizontal a n d verti-

which users could cal lines a n d c o m b i n e t h e m into fig-

create duplicates. ures a n d shapes. Sutherland in 1968
If the user changed created The Sword of Damocles, which is widely considered to be t h e first
the master drawing, virtual reality system. (The h e a d - m o u n t e d display worn by t h e user was so
all the instances of heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling, t h u s inspiring t h e name.)
the drawing would
S o m e t i m e a r o u n d 1965, t h e first "killer application," e-mail, was invented
change as well.
as a way for multiple users of a t i m e - s h a r i n g m a i n f r a m e c o m p u t e r to com-
municate. By 1966, e-mail h a d expanded to allow users to send messages
between different computers. By 1971, e-mail was being sent across ARPA-
NET, the precursor to the Internet- Ray Tomlinson, who created the e-mail
s t a n d a r d s still in use (such as t h e @ symbol in e-mail addresses), sent t h e
first e-mail between different host systems, reportedly s o m e t h i n g insignifi-
cant like "QWERTYUIOP."

The A R P A N E T (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was devel-

oped by ARPA of the United States D e p a r t m e n t of Defense a n d was t h e pre-
decessor of t h e global Internet. Conceived as t h e "Intergalactic C o m p u t e r
N e t w o r k " in 1962 by J.C.R. Licklider, t h e first two links of t h e network
(UCLA a n d Stanford) connected on November 21, 1969. W h i l e A R P A N E T
certainly wasn't a design milestone, its creation lead to the platform and
m e d i u m that caused interaction design to flourish: the Internet.

In 1968, D o u g Engelbart did a 90-minute presentation that is n o w k n o w n

3
as "The M o t h e r of All D e m o s " (Figure 1.9). In it, Engelbart showed t h e
work h e ' d been doing for t h e previous several years, essentially creating
the next two decades of interaction design. As well as being t h e first public

3 Watch it online at http./Aloan.stanford.edu/Mou5e5ite/1968Demo.html

 A ( V E R Y ) BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERACTION DESIGN 13

demonstration of the mouse, Figure 1.9

Engelbart d e m o n s t r a t e d an incred- December 9 , 1 9 6 8 ,
ible variety of interaction design was Doug Engelbart's
p a r a d i g m s we now take for granted, "Mother of All
such as point a n d click, h y p e r l i n k s , D e m o s " at the Fall
c u t t i n g a n d pasting, and networked Joint Computer
collaboration. Conference in San
Francisco. Engelbart
M a n y of these paradigms were to find a home at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto
demonstrated
Research Center), founded in 1970. The head of Xerox PARC, Bob Taylor, urged
a mouse, video
employees to t h i n k of computers not as just processing devices, but instead as
conferencing, e-mail,
communication devices.
and hypertext on the
COURTESY WICHiRY
Xerox PARC r e m a i n s legendary. Its N L S (oNLine System)

contributions to t h e field, m a n y of to 1,000 attendees.

which are c o n t a i n e d in its signature

products t h e Xerox Alto (Figure 1.10)
a n d t h e Xerox Star, are everything
from w i n d o w i n g and icons a n d the
desktop m e t a p h o r to W Y S I W Y G text
editing. Employees included Alan
Kay, who conceived of the first laptop
computer, t h e D y n a b o o k , in 1968;
Larry Tesler a n d Tim Mott, w h o con- Figure 1,10
ceived of t h e desktop metaphor and
Xerox Alto. One of
such now-standard interactions as the first personal
cut-and-paste; a n d Robert Metcalfe, computers, and
who invented Ethernet n e t w o r k i n g the first to use the
in 1973. desktop metaphor.

Famously, Steve Jobs got a d e m o of the Xerox Star a n d proceeded to include

its innovations into Apple's subsequent computers, t h e Lisa and, eventually,
the Macintosh.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, experiments like M y r o n Krueger's VIDEOPLACE

explored v i r t u a l reality experiences a n d gestural interfaces, a n d t h e first
touchscreen devices became commercially available.

The 1970s also b e g a n t h e c o m p u t e r g a m i n g i n d u s t r y w i t h g a m e s such

as Pong (1972) a n d t h e Atari 2600 g a m i n g console (1977). This reflected
a n o t h e r major t r e n d in t h e 1970s: t h e shifting focus from t h e c o m p u t e r
14 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS I N T E R A C T I O N DESIGN?

itself—the h a r d w a r e — t o t h e software that r u n s it, particularly software

t h a t was n o t designed by c o m p u t e r scientists a n d engineers for themselves
or t r a i n e d o p e r a t o r s . Designers a n d e n g i n e e r s in t h e 1970s refined a n d
e x p a n d e d the c o m m a n d - l i n e interface (which h a d b e g u n in t h e 1950s)
into such i n d u s t r y - d e f i n i n g software, as VisiCalc, t h e first spreadsheet
software, i n t r o d u c e d in 1979, a n d WordStar, a p o p u l a r w o r d - p r o c e s s i n g
p r o g r a m i n t r o d u c e d in 1978 (Figure 1.11),

Figure 111 l
U ( l ; l-'rumfit w:: HE3
— .

WordStar and its 'V

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"a luft. "k iqi scree "V line "1} turn iisert o f f "Q q u i c k II.III t ion =
the first pieces of "JJ right "C doun De 1 * h^tr "0 •JT.t t. h width b-..-. ivln.rth.inil
~A u o r d Infr screen HI *ir>-' r < < - c " N EN) it t h e 1 in--
"V wo j-it)hr 'B top hit ' L 1 ir..l - enlace ay in
commercial software
that weren't designed
by programmers
for programmers.
WordStar dominated
the word processing
market from its
release in 1978 until
the early 1990s, when
it was surpassed by
Microsoft Word.

This new emphasis on users c a m e to fruition in t h e early 1980s with the

explosion of the graphical user interface—spearheaded by Apple Computer,
first in t h e Lisa (Figure 1.12) and t h e n in the M a c i n t o s h — t o a mass audi-
ence. Like at Xerox PARC, t h e interaction design of t h e Lisa a n d Macintosh
was a g r o u p effort, featuring designers such as Joy Mountford, Jef Raskin,
a n d Bill A t k i n s o n .

The 1980s was t h e era of the personal computer. For the first t i m e , m o s t
people w o r k i n g with c o m p u t i n g devices were working with their own, a n d
t h u s h a d a m o r e one-to-one relationship with one t h a n in previous decades.
1981 also saw some of the first portable computers, such as t h e O s b o r n e 1.
The increasing m e m o r y a n d power of t h e devices allowed for m o r e sophis-
ticated software such as Mitch Kapor's Lotus 1-2-3 (1983).
 A ( V E R Y ) BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERACTION DESIGN 15

Figure 1.12

Apple Lisa was a

precursor (of sorts)
to the Macintosh,
although more
powerful and, in many
ways, more advanced.
It was, however, a
commercial failure.

This increasing sophistication a n d power was demonstrated most capably in

the surge of so-called "video" or "arcade" games. Gaming consoles such as
the Sega Genesis (1989) and t h e Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)
brought unprecedented graphics a n d computing power to a mass audience.
This era also featured game designers such as the legendary Shigeru Miya-
moto, the "Father of M o d e r n Video Games" and creator of Mario, Legend
of Zelda, a n d Donkey Kong. G a m i n g provided a new set of parallel interac-
tion design paradigms that exist alongside the more "traditional" or "pro-
fessional" ones for the desktop. (Mobile a n d touchscreen devices are other
similar parallel tracks.)

In t h e mid-1980s, bulletin b o a r d systems (BBSs) like The W E L L (1985) a n d

Prodigy (1988) s p r u n g up so t h a t people could leave e-mail a n d messages
for one a n o t h e r on remote computers using dial-up m o d e m s .

In t h e late 1980s, M a r k Weiser a n d John Seely Brown at Xerox PARC began

p u t t i n g together t h e frameworks a n d definitions for w h a t would become
k n o w n as ubiquitous c o m p u t i n g , or u b k o m p . It's t a k e n about two decades,
but t h e era of ubicomp has likely already b e g u n (see Chapter 9).
CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

1990s
The era of networked c o m p u t i n g , a n d the b e g i n n i n g of interaction design
as a formal discipline, began in earnest d u r i n g the 1990s. The World
W i d e Web, which allowed anyone to easily publish hypertext d o c u m e n t s
accessible to anyone with a m o d e m worldwide, a n d t h e mass adoption of
e-mail, brought t h e need for better interaction design to the forefront. Marc
Andreessen's Mosaic browser (1993) was an i m p o r t a n t piece of interaction
design, i n t r o d u c i n g such p a r a d i g m s as t h e back b u t t o n .

It is no exaggeration to state that the advent of t h e commercial, public Inter-

net changed the world a n d the relationship of h u m a n s to c o m p u t i n g devices
a n d even to information. The early W e b was as m u c h a sandbox for new
interactions as was the desktop a decade before, if not m o r e so. The Web,
along with technologies such as Adobe's Flash, allowed for experimentation
on a g r a n d scale, and for a t i m e , everything—including general controls
like scrollbars a n d buttons—were up for grabs. Eventually, in t h e late 1990s,
s t a n d a r d s began to emerge a n d t h e Web stabilized as a platform.

At t h e s a m e time, engineers a n d designers began building sensors a n d

microprocessors, which were getting smaller, cheaper, a n d m o r e powerful,
into things that weren't considered computers: cars, appliances, and elec-
tronic equipment. Suddenly, these physical objects could d e m o n s t r a t e kinds
of behavior that they previously couldn't; they could display an "awareness"
of their e n v i r o n m e n t a n d of how they were being used that was previously
inconceivable. Cars could m o n i t o r their own engines and alert drivers to
problems before t h e y occurred. Stereos could adjust their settings based
on t h e type of music being played. Dishwashers could lengthen their wash
cycles d e p e n d i n g on h o w d i r t y t h e dishes were. All these behaviors needed
to be designed and, most i m p o r t a n t , c o m m u n i c a t e d to the h u m a n beings
using the objects.

O t h e r pieces of technology facilitated interactions a m o n g people, mostly

in the e n t e r t a i n m e n t space. Karaoke spread from bars in C h i n a and Japan
to t h e United States (Figure 1.13). Arcade video games like D a n c e D a n c e
Revolution allowed expression in front of crowds. Multiplayer games on
computers a n d g a m e consoles like t h e Sony PlayStation facilitated competi-
tion and collaboration in new ways. O n l i n e c o m m u n i t i e s like EverQuest
a n d The Sims O n l i n e incorporated sophisticated economies that rivaled
those of offline countries.
 A ( V E R Y ) BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERACTION DESIGN

Figure 1.13

Although the butt

of jokes in the US,
the karaoke machine
is a surprisingly
rich example of
interaction design.
It provides a way
to communicate
emotionally with
friends.

Mobile phones a n d devices—which had existed since t h e 1980s—enjoyed

explosive m a r k e t g r o w t h in t h e 1990s. Today, billions of customers carry
these devices with t h e m . Starting as simply a m e a n s of m a k i n g calls on
t h e go, mobile phones can n o w contain myriad digital features that rival
those of desktop computers. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) got off to
a shaky start with t h e failure of Apple's N e w t o n in 1995, b u t by t h e end of
t h e decade, they had gained traction with devices like t h e PalmPilot a n d
BlackBerry PDAs.

2 0 0 0 s to Present
The t u r n of the m i l l e n n i u m also coincided with the era of social software a n d
the beginning of t h e era of ubiquitous computing. N o l o n g e r did m a n y people
have a one-to-one relationship with devices, b u t instead had access to m a n y
devices able to interact with each other and t h e Internet over a network. By
2003, laptops had started outselling desktop systems. As of this writing (2009),
nearly as m a n y people access the Web via a mobile device as with a traditional
desktop or laptop, and that n u m b e r is likely to be surpassed shortly.

As t h e I n t e r n e t m a t u r e d , so d i d t h e technologies creating a n d driving it.

Since t h e end of t h e 1990s, t h e Internet h a s b e c o m e less about reading con-
tent t h a n about doing t h i n g s : executing stock trades, m a k i n g new (and
IS CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

Figure 1.14 finding old) acquaintances, selling

Skype takes a familiar items, m a n i p u l a t i n g live data, s h a r i n g

paradigm, the buddy photos, m a k i n g personal connections

list from instant • S k y p e Contact* ( 6 / 6 ) between o n e piece of content a n d
? J CyBumatt
messaging, and ? J Earl E, Bird
another. The Internet also provides
%t Efiavator
couples it with a new several new ways of c o m m u n i c a t -
'3* HwEnteH

technology, Voice t£ Ron D e v u e ing, a m o n g t h e m instant messaging,

% T m i s Tty
over IP (VoIP), in f SkypeOm C o n m c B (0/1? Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
order to make phone (Figure 1.14), a n d Twitter.
calls via the Internet.
The Internet has become a plat-
form for applications, in m u c h t h e
s a m e way that Microsoft D O S once
was, but these applications can take
advantage of t h e m a n y features of the
Internet: collective actions like t h e
SETI(«>Home project in which people
compete to see who can find extraterrestrial activity first, data that is col-
lected passively from large n u m b e r s of people as with A m a z o n ' s "People
who bought this also bought..." feature, far-flung social c o m m u n i t i e s such
as that of online p h o t o g r a p h y site Flickr, aggregation of m a n y sources of
data in XML a n d RSS feeds, near real-time access to timely data like stock
quotes a n d news, a n d easy sharing of content such as blogs and YouTube.

Access to the Internet, through broadband connections and wireless networks

on portable devices, is changing the types of interactions we can have and
where we can have them. O u r cities a n d towns are becoming platforms a n d
data sources for geo-located services. Services themselves are being affected
by interaction design (see "Products and Services" later in this chapter).

Gestural interfaces a n d touchscreen devices such as Nintendo's Wii a n d

Apple's iPhone have ushered in a n e w era of interaction design, where taps
on a screen or gestures in space are b e c o m i n g a new set of c o m m a n d s for
o u r devices.

There's never been a better time to be an interaction designer. The discipline's

future (see Chapter 9) contains b o t h many challenges and m a n y possibilities.
 A ( V E R Y ) BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERACTION DESIGN 19

Marc Rettig on Interaction Design's History and Future

Marc Rettig is a designer, educator, and researcher, as well
as founder and principal of Fit /Associates. He has taught
at Carnegie Mellon's Graduate School of Design (where he
held the 2003 Nierenberg Distinguished Chair of Design)
and the Institute of Design, UT, in Chicago. Marc served
as chief experience officer of the user experience firm
HannaHodge, and was a director of user experience at
Cambridge Technology Partners.

W h e n does the history of interaction design begin?

I'll pick the work at Xerox P A R C on the Star interface as a very early example of self-conscious
interaction design, the publication of which influenced others to begin working in a similar
way. As just one example, the idea of associating a program with a picture was born there. We
call them icons, and forget what a breakthrough connection between interface element and
underlying meaning that once was. That was the early-to-mid 1970s, and the Star papers are
still great reading.

W h a t fields have had the greatest influence on interaction d e s i g n ?

As it is currently practiced? Well, software development and graphic design. To some extent,
industrial design. A dab of psychology and human factors. A dab of business.

What I imagine we need more of: filmmaking and theater, biology, counseling and therapy
(the professionals at acquiring and checking an empathetic point of view), maybe anthropol-
ogy. And especially linguistics—some new branch of linguistics that nobody is yet carving
out: the linguistics of designed interactions.

W h a t can interaction designers team from noninteractive tools?

I'd like to spin the question slightly by observing that to an interaction designer, watching a
tool in use is the s a m e as observing a conversation. Everything, in a sense, has its inputs and
outputs. From that point of view, the boundary between "interactive" and "noninteractive"
tools starts to dissolve.

Interaction design is largely about the meaning that people assign to things and events, and
how people try to express meanings. So to learn from any tool, interactive or not, go watch
20 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

Marc Rettig on Interaction Design's History and Future (continued)

people using it. You'll hear them talk to the tool. You'll see them assign all sorts of surprising
interpretations to shapes, colors, positioning, dings, dents, and behaviors. You'll see them fall
in love with a thing as it becomes elegantly worn. You'll see them come to hate a thing and
choose to ignore it, sei! it, or even smash it. A n d I guarantee you won't have to do much of
this before you encounter someone who makes a mental mapping you would never dream
possible. A n d you'll learn from that.

I've been using tea kettles as an example in some of my teaching, because on the one hand
kettles are so familiar to us, and they're only interactive in a borderline, predictable, mechani-
cal sort of way. But once you start to examine the meanings involved with kettles in use, you
realize they have things to say that people would love to know, but most designs don't allow
them to be said. "I'm getting hot, but I have no water in me." "My water is a good tempera-
ture for a child's cocoa." "I'm too hot to touch." "I need to be cleaned." And so on. I'd love the
chance to take a serious interaction design approach to something like a tea kettle.

A Stew of Disciplines
Interaction design as a formal discipline has been a r o u n d for less t h a n two
decades. It's a y o u n g field, still d e n n i n g itself and figuring out its place
a m o n g sister disciplines such as information architecture (IA), industrial
design (ID), visual (or graphic) design, user experience ( U X ) design, and
h u m a n factors. In addition, some of these other disciplines are also new
a n d still discovering their b o u n d a r i e s as well, or are radically c h a n g i n g to
a c c o m m o d a t e c h a n g i n g design landscape. Figure 1.15 attempts to clarify
the relationships between t h e m .

As you c a n see, most of the disciplines fall at least partially u n d e r t h e

umbrella of user-experience design, t h e discipline of looking at all a s p e c t s -
visual design, interaction design, s o u n d design, and so on—of t h e user's
encounter with a product, a n d m a k i n g sure they are in harmony.
 A S T E W OF DISCIPLINES 21

Figure 1.15

T h e disciplines
surrounding
interaction design.

Information architecture is concerned with t h e s t r u c t u r e of content: how

to best organize a n d label content so that users find the information they
need. Yahoo, with its dozens of labeled a n d categorized content areas, offers
an excellent illustration of information architecture. Visual design is about
creating a visual language to c o m m u n i c a t e content. The fonts, colors, a n d
layout of user interfaces and printed materials like this b o o k provide exam-
ples of visual design. Industrial design is about form—shaping objects in a
way that c o m m u n i c a t e s their use while also m a k i n g t h e m functional. Phys-
ical objects like furniture, kitchenware, a n d mechanical objects illustrate
industrial design. H u m a n factors ensure o u r products conform to t h e limi-
tations of t h e h u m a n body, b o t h physically and psychologically. H u m a n -
c o m p u t e r interaction is closely related to interaction design, but its m e t h o d s
are m o r e quantitative, a n d its m e t h o d s are m o r e those of engineering a n d
22 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

computer science t h a n of design. Architecture concerns itself with physical

spaces: their form a n d use ("program"). Sound design defines a set of noises,
spoken word, or music to create an aural landscape.

It's easy to see why people are confused!

A l t h o u g h these disciplines are separate, as t h e figure illustrates, they still

overlap a great deal. In fact, where t h e disciplines overlap can be major areas
of practice, such as interface design, where visual a n d interaction design
meet; or navigation, where visual a n d interaction design m e e t information
architecture.

The best products involve multiple disciplines w o r k i n g in h a r m o n y . W h a t is

a laptop computer except a blend of the fruits of m a n y of these disciplines?
Separating t h e m can be nearly impossible.

You'll also notice that m a n y of these disciplines have parts that lie outside
t h e user experience realm. This is because m a n y of these disciplines have
tasks that have to do with getting their designs produced, developed, a n d
built, a n d those tasks m a y have little to do with what the user experiences.

It is also i m p o r t a n t to note that n o t every organization needs a specialist

w o r k i n g in each discipline; w i t h i n an organization, one person, who m i g h t
be called a n y t h i n g from an information architect to a user-interface engi-
neer, c a n — a n d probably will—shift back a n d forth as needs require. It's the
role that is i m p o r t a n t , not t h e title. The "imagineer" at Disney might do a
job similar to that of t h e "user-interface architect" at a s t a r t u p company.
 A STEW OF DISCIPLINES

Case Study: Microsoft Office 2007

T h e Company

Microsoft, the world's largest software company.

The Problem

In the early 2 0 0 0 s , it was clear to many inside Microsoft that something had to be done about
their best-selling, nearly ubiquitous software suite Microsoft Office. The original interaction and
interface design, created a decade before, was not scaling well. New features were being hidden
by the interface, and even features users had requested and had been put into new versions
of the product couldn't be found by those very same users. The software appeared bloated,
inefficient, and unwieldy. For example, 50 menu items and 2 toolbars from Microsoft Word 1.0
had ballooned to 2 6 0 menu items and over 30 toolbars by Word 2 0 0 3 .

; t* ej* *»' iv™* I** ft* tynfo* :

' *; _ ~ • ' . ' ' „ . >'.'"'*; f ' .'' '

nb-iimI . Tin* few Roman - U . B / U * • 1= • | 3 *= lUp • • * * - & ' . » * S»i«..., *» .

FWIShmwiiMaitj* •SB"- Q -ft- U- to B - fflfBKHB- '. . [W & **. * i. a- °B ~1 H " .

*" "* i O (3 ft Fawrtif • ' 6 a - TO Documenll - . t \ ' i ^ *C i • 1! '/ S S .

1^11 • Sac, I I» - ^'1.'. ' in I Quits, ''^ -f

24
CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

Case Study: Microsoft Office 2007 (continued)

The Process

The Microsoft design team started by analyzing anonymous data collected about how people
were using Office 2 0 0 3 - They looked for two important things: desirable features with low
usage numbers (which meant people couldn't find them) and frequently-used features that
were hard to get to (which meant people really wanted them). They focused on the design
principle (see Chapter 6) " U s e of a broader set of toots" and did several years of iterative
prototyping to come up with a new set of interaction design paradigms for users.

T h e Solution

Microsoft Office 2 0 0 7 has literally 1 0 0 0 enhancements to it, all of which take up less screen
space than previous versions. One main (and controversial) Ul change was the Ribbon
(pictured), which clusters pieces of functionality at the top of the screen in large, easy-to-
click targets. Another innovation was known as "the Minibar," which appeared near objects
that were highlighted and allowed users to quickly modify the selection without having to
fiddle with menus or the Ribbon. The new design has been a best-seller, and the headline for
the review in the New York Times read "From Bloated to Sleek."

a
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 PRODUCTS A N D SERVICES

Products and Services

Interaction designers work on a wide variety of products: everything from
W e b sites to desktop software, from c o n s u m e r electronics to robots, from
mobile a n d medical devices to interactive e n v i r o n m e n t s . These p r o d u c t s
can be solely digital (software) or mostly analog (robots), physical (appli-
ances) or incorporeal (a gestural interface), or s o m e combination thereof.

Since behaviors, technology platforms, and media frequently change, good

interaction design doesn't align itself to anyone in particular. Interaction design
should be technologically agnostic, concerned only with the right technologies
for the task at hand, be it a complex software application or a simple sign.

More and more, t h e products that interaction designers work on are con-
nected to a service, to the point where it may not be meaningful to distin-
guish between t h e m anymore for interaction design. A service is a chain of
sequential, parallel, or nonlinear activities or events that form a process a n d
have value for the end user. You engage in a service when you get your shoes
shined or your nails manicured or when you visit a fast-food restaurant. Your
mobile p h o n e s usage plan is a service, a n d you participate in a service e v e n '
t i m e you travel on a plane, train, or taxi. Services can be small a n d discreet,
such as the sale of postage stamps by some ATM machines, or they can be
huge, such as the sorting and delivery' of physical mail. Service providers are
all a r o u n d us a n d account for an enormous portion of the world economy—
from restaurants a n d bars to d r y cleaners, hospitals, construction companies,
street cleaners, a n d even complete governments. Services are everywhere.

Services greatly affect our quality of life because we are touched by so m a n y

of t h e m every day. A p o o r service can m a k e y o u r subway ride to work
uncomfortable, y o u r packages late or undelivered, your lunch distaste-
ful, your mobile p h o n e coverage poor, a n d y o u r ability to find evening TV
shows problematic.
26 CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

Shelley Evenson on Service Design

Shelley Evenson is an associate professor and director of graduate studies
at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design. Prior to her academic
career, she was vice president and chief experience strategist for Sclent,
director of design at DKA/Digital Knowledge Assets, director at Doblin
Group, and vice president of Fitch, She has published a number of articles
and presented papers at numerous conferences on design languages
in hypermedia, interaction design, design research, and service design.

W h y is service design important?

According to one IBM report, today more than 70 percent of the U.S. labor force is engaged
in service delivery. New technology has enabled internationally tradable services. We are at a
tipping point. A huge portion of the economy is now focused on knowledge-based information
services. I believe that as we shift to this service-centered society, it won't be good enough to
view services from a purely management or operations-based perspective. Companies will
need to turn to service design and innovation to differentiate themselves in increasingly c o m -
petitive markets and to create opportunities that address new challenges in the service sector.

How is designing a service different from designing a product?

W h e n designing a product, much of the focus is on mediating the interaction between the
person and the artifact. Great product designers consider more of the context in their design,
In service design, designers must create resources that connect people to people, people to
machines, and machines to machines. You must consider the environment, the channel, the
touchpoint. Designing for service becomes a systems problem and often even a systems
challenge. The elements or resources that designers need to create to mediate the inter-
actions must work on all these levels and at the same time facilitate connections that are
deeply personal, open to participation and change, and drop-dead stunning.
 PRODUCTS A N D SERVICES

Shelley Evenson on Service Design (continued)

W h a t can interaction designers bring to the design of services?

Interaction designers use methods in their process that can be directly applied to service
design. Immersive ethnographic methods can help designers account for the complexity of
service elements that are onstage, backstage, visible, and invisible in the service experience.
We add a kind of theater or enactment to our service process. Enactment is when first the
development team and then participants from the delivery organization act out the service
experience with specific roles and rough props. I've seen this technique become more popu-
lar with interaction designers in recent days. Developing constituent archetypes or personas
is also useful in service design since the characters can be used to drive service scenarios
before they are enacted. Nearly all the methods introduced in this book could apply.

W h a t fields are most in need of service design right now?

I believe there are loads of opportunity in health care. The model for service delivery hasn't
changed much in the last 50 years. Medical research and technology have advanced beyond
what the model can account for. Additionally, people's expectations for service have changed.
Today we have endless access to information, self-service everything, and overnight delivery.
These new expectations are finally hitting the medical profession. Some institutions are
responding, most notably the Mayo Clinic and U P M C .

Another area of opportunity is software. I think people are just beginning to look beyond
the metaphor of software as product, to seeing the potential of product/service systems, or
even systems of systems, as new means of framing company offerings. Financial services are
another area of opportunity.

W h e r e do you s e e service design headed in the near future?

Europeans have been seriously thinking about service design for over 10 years. They've made
a lot of progress, especially with regard to designing for service experiences that encourage
more responsible product ownership and sustainable lifestyles. We could begin to see some
of those efforts cross over to the U.S.

I also believe we will begin to see more business strategists looking forward toward experi-
ence in designing for service instead of backward toward products. When this happens, we
may see a demand for service designers that rivals what happened for interaction designers
in the Internet boom days.
CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

W h e t h e r it is a Web site, a device t h a t plugs into a network, a robot, or an

interactive e n v i r o n m e n t , it is likely m o s t of the products interaction design-
ers work on will live in s o m e sort of service, so it can be useful to have a
holistic, service design mentality w h e n w o r k i n g on a product.

NOTE Throughout this book, the outcome of the design process will be
called a "product" even though in some cases, that product may be a
complete service or (more likely) part of a service.

Why Practice Interaction Design?

In p o e m after p o e m , t h e late barfly poet extraordinaire Charles Bukowski
noted that it wasn't the big things that drove people mad, it was t h e small
stuff: little things n o t going well, small irritants that over t i m e m a d e you
crazy—the leaking faucet, t h e stains that won't come out of clothes, t h e
mobile p h o n e that won't dial. Interaction designers try to ameliorate some
of that a n n o y a n c e , m a k i n g sure that the products and services people deal
with m a k e sense, are usable a n d useful, and are even engaging a n d fun.
Some of what good interaction designers do is make t h e world better by
removing those little irritants in life, some of which we don't k n o w exist
until they are gone.

H u m a n s have an amazing tendency to become accustomed to the terrible,

inconvenient, a n d awkward. We can live with horrible situations for long
periods until something better comes along, something we may not have even
k n o w n we needed. Take the telephone, for instance. For decades, all calls had
to be routed t h r o u g h a h u m a n operator, who (if she or he felt like it) could also
listen in on your call (Figure 1.16). Dial phones weren't introduced until 1919,
a n d it wasn't until the 1950s—80 years after the phone was invented—that
direct distance dialing (DDD) allowed callers to dial long-distance without
the help of an operator. The last m a n u a l phones weren't phased out until the
1970s—almost a h u n d r e d years after they were introduced!
 FOR FURTHER READING 29

Figure 1.16

O l d telephone
exchange. Imagine all
your long-distance
calls being routed
through this. Now
imagine having to
operate it for long
periods of time.

But interaction design isn't only about fixing problems; it's also about inven-
tion, about creating new products, and by doing so, m a k i n g the world a better
place to live. The Internet would be a collection of servers and wires without
Web browsers, e-mail clients, Twitter, games, blogging tools, social network-
ing sites, and instant messaging and VoIP programs. These products—these
designed products—allow us to connect with one another t h r o u g h t i m e and
space, like t h e smoke signals and cairns of our ancient ancestors.

It's easy to forget in t h e middle of a h a r r o w i n g project, but t h e work that

interaction designers do matters in profound ways. Interaction designers
change the world, a little at a t i m e , t h r o u g h t h e products they create.

For Further Reading

Designing Interactions, Bill Moggridge

Hackers, Steven Levy

Where Wizards Stay Up Late, Katie Hafner

CHAPTER 1 W H A T IS INTERACTION DESIGN?

Dealers in Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawning of the Computer Age,
Michael Hiltzik

The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage

Geeks Bearing Gifts: How the Computer World Got This Way, Ted Nelson

The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Com-
puting Personal, M. Mitchell W a l d r o p