People and prototypes

People and PrototypesThe author’s own ideas about how to design interactions,with help from his friends and colleagues Jane Fulton Suriand Duane BrayBill Moggridge Designing Interaction Chapter 10MiladHajiamiri

Content:Jane Fulton (human factors psychologist): method`s to learn about people

Duane Bray (leader of the interaction design discipline in IDEO): analysis of prototyping techniquesBill Moggridge (Author): Process and definingthe difference between designing something new and designing a new version of something

Designing InteractionGillian Crampton Smith:Design of interactions is being about shaping our everyday lives through digital artifacts for work, play, and entertainment.What is Design?Design isdifficult to define, and designers are much more at ease learning and knowing by doing than they are explaining.British Design Council: A Project called “Definitions of Design,” “With art if you like, you can be really weird. But in design you haveto think about what other people will like.” Ghisli, age 10Design is everywhere and that’s why looking for a definition may not help you grasp what it is.

Designing InteractionGood design comes from the successful synthesis of a solution that recognizes all the relevant constraints, and the nature of the constraints defines the difference between design disciplines.

Designing InteractionFive core skills of design:1. To synthesize a solution from all of the relevant constraints,understanding everything that will make a difference to the result2. To frame, or reframe, the problem and objective3. To create and envision alternatives4. To select from those alternatives, knowing intuitively how tochoose the best approach5. To visualize and prototype the intended solution

Designing InteractionThe process does not look like a linear system diagram, nor even a revolving wheel of iterations, but is more like playing with a pinball machine, where one bouncesrapidly in unexpected directions.

Designing InteractionTacit knowledgeDesigners have the ability and the training the tacit knowledge of the unconscious mind, rather than being limited to working with explicit knowledge. This makes them good at synthesizing complex problems with large numbers of constraints; it also makes them bad at explaining ordefining what they are doing or thinking. They will describe process and results because they are not consciously aware of their own rationale.This is the reason that design education relies on a project based approach of “learning by doing.”

This hierarchy shows the increasing complexity of the relevant constraints,if you consider each type of design problem from the point of view of theuser. The hierarchy is based on the type of human factors that is relevantto the design context in each level of complexity, starting with the simplestat the bottom.

Designing InteractionAnthropometrics—the sizes of peopleDesigners have to understand basic human factors, but it is reasonable to expect that the sizes of people, are the most relevant. Thanks to Henry Dreyfuss, anthropometric information for the designer is easy to find, by referring to the book The Measure of Man, or the reference cards in Humanscale,6which present the salient dimensions of people of different statures, gender, age, and ethnic background.

Designing InteractionPhysiology—the way the body workswhen you need to consider actions as well as objects. If the design context includes what the person is doing as well as the things that they are using, the constraints need to include the way the human body works, or physiology, as well as the sizes of people.When you are designing a chair for work, you must consider the danger that long periods of sitting may cause back strain, which demands that you understand the structure of the human spine and the muscles that support it.

Designing InteractionCognitive psychology—the way the mind worksWhen the design context includes machine intelligence as well as human intelligence, the design team will benefit from the expertise of a cognitive psychologist and will also need designers who are skilled at designing interactions.

Designing InteractionSociology—the way people relate to each otherSociologists can help members of a design team understand the implications of this and to operate in the more abstract realm of designing services, where you are affected more by relationships among people as well as between users and objects or interfaces.We are better equipped to face the complexity as aninterdisciplinary team, with a collective consciousness, and theability to create designs as a group or team rather than asindividuals.

Designing InteractionCultural anthropology—the human conditionDesigner who has developed a product for a global markethas had to face the complexities that come from culturalvariations. Some people eat with chopsticks and others withcutlery. And colors have strong symbolic meanings that arespecific to particular societies. Cultural anthropologists can helppeople in a development organization understand the nature ofcultural differences.

Designing InteractionEcology—the interdependence of living thingsdesigners need to understand the issues that will affect the environmental condition of our planet as well as the interconnected social and economic systems that we need to sustain.Organizations and processes are emerging that allow the design team to understand and analyze the implications of their designs on sustainability, including the use of materials, energy, and the full lifecycle.

Designing InteractionWhere Does Interaction Design Fit?

Designing InteractionA narrow definition of interaction design is:“The design of the subjective and qualitative aspects of everything that is both digital and interactive.”A broad definition of interaction design is: ‘’The design of everything that is both digital and interactive.”

Designing InteractionIs Interaction Design Here to Stay?In June of 2002 I was in London at the time of the display ofwork of the graduating master’s students at the Royal College ofArt, and I was looking at the projects from the interaction designdepartment. I was impressed by the fact that most of them wereboth digital and physical; the students were designing smartPeople and Prototypes objects rather than computer-based software. I was moving fromthe work of one student to the next, looking in some detail at theindividual designs. Suddenly I looked up at the whole room, anddiscovered to my surprise that I had drifted into the area occupiedby the projects from the industrial design department, nevernoticing a difference in the nature of the work. Just as theinteraction designers were designing smart objects, the industrialdesigners were designing objects that were smart, finding itnatural to include electronically enabled behaviors

PeopleLatent Needs and Desires“Observation” was the label we used for the best way to learnabout people in the context of a particular design problem,implying that you needed to look at what people really do in asituation, rather than rely on the conventional technique of asking them about what they think and do.When you are trying to understand the latent needs and desires of potential users before a design is created, it is important to learn about their existing habits and context of use—things they are rarely able to tell you about explicitly. You will gather clearer and more vivid knowledge of these by experiencing them firsthand.

People51 Ways of Learning about PeopleOver the years, the human factors people at IDEO haveevolved many new techniques beyond the simple observationsthat we started with, and now we have amassed a set of fifty-onemethods, published as a deck of cards.The idea of the methods cards is to make a large number ofdifferent techniques accessible to all members of a design teamand to encourage a creative approach to the search forinformation and insights as their projects evolve

PeopleEach of the fifty-one cards contains explanatory text abouthow and when the method can be used and a brief example of itsapplication to a real design project, with an illustrative andsometimes whimsical image on the other side. The cards aredivided into four categories, ranging from the objective to moresubjective—Learn, Look,Ask, and Try:“Learn” from the facts yougather,“Look” at what users do,“Ask” them to help, and “Try” itfor yourself.

PeopleLookObserve people to discover what they really do—not what they say they do.FLY ON THE WALLHow Observe and record behavior within its context, without interfering with people’s activities.Why It is useful to see what people do in real contexts and time frames,rather than accept what they say they did after the fact.Example By spending time in the operating room, the designers were able to observe andunderstand the information that the surgical team needed.

PeopleLookObserve people to discover what they really do—not what they say they do.A DAY IN THE LIFEHow Catalog the activities and contexts that users experience for an entire day.Why This is a useful way to reveal unanticipated issues inherent in the routines and circumstances people experience daily.ExampleFor the design of a portable communication device, the design team followed people throughout the day, observing moments at which they would like to beable to access information.

PrototypesInteraction Design PrototypesPro-to-type n. 1. An original type, form, or instance that serves as a model on which later stages are based or judged.American Heritage DictionaryIn the context of designing interactions, perhaps we can narrow the definition to: “A representation of a design, made before the final solution exists.”

Prototypes“Experience Prototyping”understanding, exploring and communicatingBy the term “experience prototype” we mean to emphasize theexperiential aspect of whatever representations are needed tosuccessfully (re)live or convey an experience with a product, space or system. So, for an operational definition we can say an Experience Prototype is any kind of representation, in any medium, that is designed to understand, explore or communicate what it might be like to engage with the product, space or system we are designing.

Prototypes1.Understanding existing user experiences and contextThe first category is about:understanding existing user experiences when you are collecting constraints and trying to understand everything that will make a difference to the result.Example: The ROV Pilot experienceThe project involved the design of a pilot’s interface for anunderwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and its cameras. It was important that designers grasp and deal with some of the cognitive confusion that would arise for the operator.

Prototypesthe team developed a game in which one player, A, stood in a room which was empty except for multiple chairs (portraying underwaterobstacles), and one of them held a chocolate bar, the target. Player A held a video camera connected by a long cable to a remote TV screen where the live picture was viewed by player B. Player B gave verbal instructions to player A to move right/left, forward/back, and up/down and gave separate verbal commands to direct the camera.After a few yards of cables wrapped round A’s legs and the chairs as well as B’s frustration at making mistakes, “Aargh! I meant camera right not move right,” the design team and the client had personalinsight about many important issues.

Prototypes2.Exploring and evaluating design ideasThe second category from the paper is useful during the design development process, when alternatives are being created and envisioned.Example:Children’s picture communicator

PrototypesResult:As an observer of user evaluations, one knows very quickly if the designed experience is a good one. If it is, people get so involved in the experience that they forget about the limitations of the prototype.Kids are notoriously tolerant of heavy backpacks, but they arealso good at rejecting offerings that have no value to them, so thisexperience prototype showed the potential of the mainproposition of sending and receiving images, as well as allowingthe designers to try out the interactions.

Prototypes3. Communicating ideasThe role of experience prototyping here is to let a client, a design colleague, or a user understand the subjective value of a design idea by directly experiencing it.The design process, like other creative endeavors, leaps fromsynthesis to idea without rationale. Inspiration is hard to trust forthe recipient, so the designer relies on showing the result toconvince the audience. The proof is in the prototype. Seeing maybe believing, but “touching is reality,” as Alan Kay said.Example:Dynamic documents (QuickTime). Kiss Communicator, Pick-and-drop Software and etc.

PrototypesPrototyping Techniques and Interaction Design 1. Screen-based experiencesThe earliest to emerge was screen graphics, or pixel-based experiences,where the designer manipulates pixels to express software interactions.This is similar to the more recent skill needed to design for theInternet, as Web sites are also designed as screen graphics.2. Interactive productsThe second version is where the physical object is integrated with theelectronic hardware and software. If a screen is embedded, the designermust consider the relationship to physical controls and the overall formfactor. If there is no screen, the design relies on ambient feedback,using light, sound, or movement.3. ServicesThe third is in the design of services, where the interactivity occursbetween a company and the broader relationship with the customer,blending time-based interactions with multiple channels—spaces,products, the Web, and so on. This blurrs the boundaries betweeninteraction design and organizational psychology.

Prototypes1.1 Screen-based experiences: Early ExplorationHelp members of a design team generate and share concepts as quicklyas possible, and are driven more by the behavior of people thanthe specifically screen-based nature of the output. This group cantherefore apply to all three categories.You can do such a lot with paper. You can quickly sketch, lay out, and evaluate interaction design concepts for basic usability, making it possible to rapidly organize, articulate, and visualize interaction design concepts.Don’t forget paper

Prototypes1.2 Exploring, evaluating, and communicating design ideasExample of Macromedia: (interview)When I got to the company themantra was, “We’ve got to make Director easier to use, and lessexpensive, and then we’ll be able to turn every secretary in everyoffice into a multimedia designer and producer.” In fact, the usersof that product were, and needed to be, professional multimediadesigners.We reversed the strategy. We went out and talked to the users ofthe product, and found that they didn’t care that it was difficult touse because it was so much better than anything else they had. Whatthey cared about was additional functionality.PowerPoint for instance; there are limited media capabilities inPowerPoint, and it’s pretty easy for anyone to learn to use, but youwouldn’t find a professional multimedia designer using PowerPointbecause it doesn’t have anywhere near enough capability.

Prototypes2. Interactive ProductsThe need for a new kind of design is triggered by the ability of everyday objectsto “behave,” enabled by interactive technology. This is the versionof interaction design where the physical object is integrated withthe electronic hardware and software.For example:The cellphone has a screen and push buttons, but it also has rotarycontrols, or perhaps a jog shuttle, slider switches, acousticfeedback, ringing tones, and a vibration behavior for the silentmode. How do you prototype all that? The techniques are similarto those used for mechanical engineering and electronic hardwareand do not need to be specific to designing interactions. Simplemockups are useful in the early stages of the design, using anytools that are at hand, perhaps random objects taped together,mockups constructed from foamcore board, or Lego, using theMindStorm robotic invention system to add some behaviors.

ProcessDesigning Something newYou will need to understand as much as possible about everything that will affect the solution.“people and prototypes” are needed most whenyou want to design something that has no precedent, whereinnovation is the only possibility.Prototype as quickly and roughly as possible, just enough tocommunicate each concept to one another. Then evaluate thedesigns. They are most likely really bad solutions, so try again.Prototype early and often, making each iterative step a little morerealistic but minimizing the time and effort invested each time.When people who are evaluating your attempts response changes from critique to involvement in the result, you can start to hope that you are on the right track.

ProcessDesigning a new versionIf you are designing a new version of something that alreadyexists, “state of the art” is the most useful starting point.evaluation will still be the best and fastest way to get to a good design. you need to spend more time and effort understanding what has already been done in the first place, so that you are building on the state of the art rather than trying to reinvent solutions that others have developed before.Look at the competition, try the previous designs, researchthe literature, understand the design principles, compare andcriticize alternative versions, get to the point that your sharedmind is so full of the existing designs that you can drop them back into your subconscious, and know that whatever you come up with will automatically build on the past.

ProcessElements of the Design Process

ProcessConstraintsUnderstanding the relevant constraints starts the process. Theconstraints come from everywhere that matters to the project.SynthesisSynthesis occurs as the subconscious, shared mind of the designteam (or the designer if the problem is simple) absorbs all of therelevant issues.FramingOne project may be best framed by ajourney through the experience, another by a four quadrantanalysis of people’s attitudes, and another by a nested hierarchy ofattributes.

ProcessIdeationThere are multiple levels ofdesign ideas, some of them encompassing the whole context andothers about tiny details. If a good framework is in place, it helpsto position the pieces, but ideation happens throughout theprocess, not just between framing and envisioning.EnvisioningIdeas are like dreams until they are visualized into some concreteRepresentation. The representation can be any sort of descriptionof the design, whether visual or behavioral, or a combination. Youcan use shortcuts when you are communicating to team membersor peers, but there must be enough clarity in the representationthat you know something of what the design is like.

ProcessUncertainty Uncertainty is a necessary factor as a precursor to selection. The subconscious “shared mind” (or individual mind) is now busysynthesizing unanswered questions about the validity of each ofthe alternative ideas.SelectionIt is time to choose.A manageable number of alternatives must bechosen to take forward to the next step.VisualizationThe visualization element is closely related to both envisioningand prototyping. The difference is that envisioning implies a glimpse into the nature of an idea, but visualization is more complete as a representation.

ProcessPrototypingPrototyping is about testing any aspect of the way a design isexpected to work. You can create a prototype that represents anidea that has been selected and visualized.EvaluationIn practice, evaluation is needed many times during thedevelopment process. EvaluationIn practice, evaluation is needed many times during thedevelopment process.

People and prototypes

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People and prototypes