Week 1 - Introduction to Interaction Design

Week 1  

My Thoughts

Since beginning Industrial Design Studies, i always was interested in the notion of 'creating' or designing interactions between users, and artifacts. How do you design an experience? I have since learnt that its impossible to 'design an experience'. There are far too many variables which our out of our hands as designers. The context, the users mood, environmental conditions ( such as noise, light, etc ). It will never be possible to control all of these variables, so all we can aspire to do is create an object which will faciliate an intended experience as purely and holistically as possible.

From working with the Danish Company Bang & Olufsen in the past, i was exposed to their design philosophy which is heavily influenced by Interaction Design. Their

products always facilitate beautiful and surprising interactions, which add immensely to the products value.

One example, the Beosound 9000 engages the user on many levels. Firstly, the user is given visual interaction with the cover art of the CDs, giving them inspiration to play a cd in the first place. After that, 6 buttons on the underside of the player relate to the corrosponding CD. You then press to chose the CD you want -the cd reader glides across at  speed of 4m/s to pick up, and play your selected CD. The designer, David Lewis said that he wanted to represent the metaphor of a Audiophile going to there record collection and picking up an album based on cover art, then playing it on a record player. 

The consumption of music presents a great oppurtunity for the application of Interaction Design Principles. In an age where the delivery of music is becoming less tangible, less emotive, and less valued, a product such as the one above is a prime example of how interaction design can help reconnect users with experiences that they value. 

Here are some other examples of interesting applications of Interaction Design.   

Group Activity - Intro to Interaction Design

Our task this week was to form groups and start draft prototyping a simple Interaction Design Concept. Our group consisted of Michael Bye, Niall, Teresa and Myself. We began by thinking about different types of inputs and outputs which contribute to an interaction. These included push, pull, touch, swipe etc. It was a good exercise in order for us to broaden our horizons and ideas about what constitutes an interaction.

We then used this to devise a fantasy product which encorporated these inputs and outputs. The idea to be a product which facilitates the communication of information between friends, boyfriend/girlfriend or family.

We came up with an idea of a product which communicates stress levels to other members of your family. The product would be a small, golf ball shaped object that may be attached to keys, wallet etc. The idea being that throughout the day, a user can squeeze this ball in order to communicate that they are stressed to another member of there family. The recipient would see that there ball is lighting up from green to red ( dependant on pressure ) and realise that the other holder of the product was stressed, and maybe needed a phone call, or to catch up.

Group Activity - Reflection

It was a fairly simple activity, and most of the time was spent just getting our team together and discussing the approach to the assignment. The concept we developed could have been developed more, and given more depth. But it was a good day which gave us some foundations for the rest of the semester.