Category: Reading Response

• What makes up interaction design and what are some of the industry’s challenges?

User control, responsiveness, real-time interactions, connectedness, personalization, and playfulness makes up interaction design. They are the basic factors that contribute to what makes people able to interact with a design. Some of the industry challenges are lazy users, patterns of technology usage, and data-driven design. Designers are frustrated with how users are smart and understand how to use designs but want to be spoon-fed how to use them at the same time. Features of phones and social media are always changing, for example, tapping the screen replacing scrolling. Lastly, keeping users engaged is vital when considering data-driven design.

• What is interaction design, how its evolving. What fields does it draw knowledge from?

Interaction design is always evolving. Technology is constantly getting smarter and becoming more convenient for people to use. Interaction design draws knowledge from consumers. Designs are revitalized based on the users’ needs and the overall accessibility to the product or service provided. Designers are consistently learning and adapting their designs based on how users react to them.

I felt this chapter to be one that fascinated me much more than any prior entry, particularly because of its enticing considerations of changing or evolving cultural perspective rather than the standard expectations of the geographically divided cultural perspective. The elements of rapidly evolving local culture are something that has become more commonly recognized than ever in the ever accelerating era of the post-industrial world, likely due to the interconnected technological advancements that are capable of being made on a much larger communication scale. This chapter not only assesses those, bringing a surprisingly dated discussion of children born in the year 1990 and their immersion into technology (something that reads as particularly strange to someone born in the year 2000, born not only into advancements in digital technology, but the very existence of the commercialized world wide web), but also discusses the ethics involved with design that persevere through all design choices. These are frequently described using terms reminiscent of economic study to describe the choices and psychological processes of consumers who would be receiving a product of group-effort artistic design.

Interaction design is a form of design that revolves around user experience with a specific creation. It can be both physical and digital. The challenges that the industry could face would be agency models dying, fragmented user journeys, data-driven design, etc.

Interaction design is growing in favor of post-modern media and functions through different types of technology. There are certain fields that have a part in this: Graphic design, psychology, marketing, engineering, and also, website development.

• What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (Chapter 3)
  • The goals for Apple’s website are to help users compare features and select the best model for their needs. Apple’s website features icons that are universal to shopping navigation and descriptions for the features that are not common amongst the average user.
• What are the functional specifications of your preferred social media’s home page? If you are not on social media what are the specs for google? (Chapter 4: Functional Specifications, Content Requirements an Prioritizing Requirements)
  • CPU — 0.2 ( the required processing power)
  • CPU — 1.4 ( graphical requirement)
  • RAM — 1.2 ( required amount of RAM)
  • OS — Android 2.2 and above (required android operating system version) iOS 5 and above (required iPhone/iPad operating system)
• What are four architectural approaches to information design and organization? Find one example of each. (Chapter 5: Information Architecture)
  • Hierarchical Structure: cnn.com
  • Organic Structures: wikipedia.com
  • Sequential Structures: wikiHow.com 
  • Matrix Structures: amazon.com
• What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (Chapter 6)
  • The Huffington Post focuses on presenting content and has simplified navigation tools.
  • Google’s main function is to navigate between other websites and is therefore mostly reliant on navigation features with small parts of content.
  • Wikipedia is meant to navigate from content to content and is therefore content-centered 
  • Etsy’s main purpose is to find information about a product so most of the page is centered around navigation and some featured content
• How does http://landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (Chapter 7: Follow the eye )
  • Landor.com Feeds small bits of information in a visually stimulating way through the way they instill functions that slow down the scrolling process and section content that fills the screen. This helps control the reader’s eyes and forces them to take in the main ideas that Landor wants the reader to get.

• What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (Chapter 3)
  • The goals of apples website is to not only describe and list their products, but also sell them as well. They describe the physical components of their products and the multitude of ways it is used. In terms of the need of someone who has purchased their first macbook, its a little lackluster. They don’t provide any info on the setup and details of the macbook, rather they just promote accessories for the macbook.
• What are the functional specifications of your preferred social media’s home page? If you are not on social media what are the specs for google? (Chapter 4: Functional Specifications, Content Requirements an Prioritizing Requirements)
  • The functional specifications is essentially what the system actually does. For example instagrams functional specifications would be the buttons at the bottom that take you to different aspects of the app( like the search, profile, and liked function) In addition, the home page has posts made by other people and at the top are stories posted by others.
• What are four architectural approaches to information design and organization? Find one example of each. (Chapter 5: Information Architecture)
  • four approaches are the Hierarchical structure, the matrix structure, organic structure, and sequential structure. Hierarchical structures are the most common and can be seen used in many design projects. The matrix structure is useful for customization of shopping such as choosing the color or size of items for online shopping. The organic structure is free flowing and is best used for idea generation and connection meaning that it is best used in the early stages of idea generation and purpose. Sequential structures are the most basic and are seen everywhere in books, articles, and video.
• What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (Chapter 6)
  • The huffington post is 90% content, and 10% navigation. This is done on purpose by categorizing things effectively reducing the need to navigate as much.
• How does http://landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (Chapter 7: Follow the eye )
  • They do this by limiting the amount of knowledge given at any point. In specific you only view an image with a small amount of text accompanying it. By doing this, you reduce the amount of things that could distract the eye resulting and ultimately focusing the audience’s attention

• What information can ethnographic tools give you to improve the interactivity of an online banking website? (pp. 48-54)
• Ethnographic tools can give insight into the demographic of the users that the banking website is going to be geared towards and to establish common goals within the ethnographic groups. Also, surface-level factors such as language, colors, and symbols all depend on the social influences of key ethnographic groups. 
• At what point is a design finished? What makes it a success? What is its purpose? (pp. 54-62)
• A design can never be truly finished. There will always be modifications that can be made to accommodate the ever-changing needs of the users. However, typically a design is accepted as complete when it fulfills the objectives to the best of the designer’s knowledge. When the design fulfills the objectives and is widely understood and accepted, the design is at its most successful. The purpose of design is to meet both the needs of the creators and the users. 
• Identify a product family you use regularly (can be anything from technology to consumables except for coffee). How has its branding affected your use, relationship, and experience with the product? (pp. 78-84)
• I have grown up constantly experiencing all of the games and gaming systems that fall under the Nintendo brand family. I think some of the features about Nintendo that makes it one of my favorite brands is the diversity in styles of quality gameplay that can all be played on the same device (for example sandboxes like Animal Crossing, open-world adventures like Legend of Zelda, and combat like Super Smash Brothers). Also, I respect Nintendo’s new direction with trying to mature their gaming library to accommodate their audience that has grown up with the brand. They have also been consistently innovative with the gaming systems and have created new gaming experiences with most of the major new releases so it does not become stagnant. 

Ethnographic tools can allow someone to gather how and why someone would use an online banking website. These tools can show how the user goes about exploring the website or what areas they use the most. It can also show why a person uses the banking website from what aspects of the website the user uses.

A design can be considered finished when it is ready to be implemented and taken to the next step. The design then can be considered a success after user testing has been completed, this will usually consist of taking people from the target audience of the design and have them work with and experience the design to see if it works as intended. The purpose of the design is to complete a goal or solve a problem, what exactly that entails differs between each design, but usually it can be found in what the target audience desires from the design.

A favorite drink of mine is Pepsi, whenever I get soda it is my go-to as long as it is available. Pepsi has very strong visual branding, the iconic logo with the blue wrapping around it. This branding and colors have become linked with the drink for me, if I’m ever in a store or looking for a drink, the logo and color will always stick out to me before any other option.

1. Ethnographic tools assist in helping us designers understand how our consumers use our products. By using these tools, we gain information on the steps our consumers take, what is analyzed by them, and if our intended goal is occuring. From this information, for an online banking website, we can learn how to streamline the process and make it easy to understand. We can see if some steps are not needed and can be removed, or if some steps are made unclear and would be frustrating to consumers. With the importance of banking, it is essential that the website is clear and easy to interact with, and ethnographic tools can assist us with that.
2. A design is not finished after the product is made, but after it has been tested and the intended results occur. As designers, we can try our best to make a design we think consumers may find easy to use, but we are biased from experience and may percieve a process to be simple when a consumer would actually find it very difficult. A design is only finished when our intended result works as intended, when the consumer can use our design as we hope they would. Our design is successful, then, when we can make one that the consumer can truly understand properly.
3. A product family I use regularly would be the Pepsi product family. I tend to consume its products a lot, especially Pepsi and Mt. Dew. I see its products everywhere, and in my past I have seen marketing for it a lot. Whenever I think I need energy in the middle of my university day, I immediately just think of Mt. Dew since I tend to rely on its caffeine so much. Overall, its branding has developed a bit of a dependency on it for me, and I choose it very often over other products, even coffee.

• What information can ethnographic tools give you to improve the interactivity of an online banking website? (pp. 48-54)

Ethnographic tools will inform us on how to improve the interactivity of an online banking website by observing how people interact with it in the first place. Ethnography is all about watching how people naturally interact with their surroundings. By doing this, you will be able to see what people struggle with when using the banking website and what they succeed at.

• At what point is a design finished? What makes it a success? What is its purpose? (pp. 54-62)

A design is never truly finished, there is always room for improvement. However, a design is a success when the user can make sense of it without any struggle. The ultimate purpose of a design is to be easy for the user to work with. Users being able to understand the design and not have any issues with it is its main purpose.

• Identify a product family you use regularly (can be anything from technology to consumables except for coffee). How has its branding affected your use, relationship and experience with the product? (pp. 78-84)

When I think of a product family that I use regularly, Apple is the first thing to come to my head. Apple branding has affected my use of their products by conditioning me to be able to navigate any of them seamlessly because they are set up very similarly. My relationship with the brand goes way back considering I owned an iPod at a young age. Since then, I have moved onto an iPhone and a MacBook Pro. I have grown up using the Apple brand so it would be jarring to switch to any other for my next phone or laptop. My overall experience with the Apple brand has been positive. My phone and laptop both do what they need to do so there are no complaints from me.

Interaction Designers must be able to communicate with various different fields in order to help those fields interact with one another. However, in order to be able to do this effectively, the Interaction Designers must understand each of these fields and know how they relate with one another. The Interaction Designer is tasked with bringing together these different fields such as design, engineering, psychology, art, and many more. The challenges they face are the ones that arise in understanding these fields and then discovering a way to bring them together.

Interaction Design is evolving through the use and ever-improving world of computers. Computers give Interaction Designers a new way to design and improve their work. The Interaction Designers then can draw knowledge from the various different fields that they interact with and help and work for.

What makes up interaction design and what are some of the industry’s challenges?

Interaction design is made up of a series of steps and processes in the hopes of understanding the audience and how the eventual product you design will affect them.  . One of the challenges the industry faces is the time it takes to commit to this whole process. Explaining to a boss why you need multiple weeks to write stories and scenarios might be a hard sell, especially to someone who isn’t well versed in the field. Another challenge is the difficulty of relating to your audience and understanding their experiences, situations, perceptions, cultural norms, etc.

What is interaction design, how its evolving. What fields does it draw knowledge from?

Interaction design consists of not only a process to design a product, but that process is interwoven into how the user of the product will use and interact with it on a daily basis. As interaction design absorbs techniques and ideas from other fields, it continues to evolve in its process of understanding the user and how they interact with life. As time progresses, certain types of products and design systems are becoming more refined thanks to interaction designers, allowing for more efficient systems and ways of interaction.  

Due to the nature of interaction design and its need for knowledge of its user, interaction design can draw knowledge from marketing, graphic design, industrial design, even UI and UX designers. Interaction design takes the steps these fields use and upgrades them, taking them to the next level to be more intricate, detailed, and suited for conceptual ways of thinking. Often these fields focus too much on the visual aspect of design, whereas interaction design focuses strictly on the conceptual navigation of users.

Interaction design is made of several fields, drawing from graphic design, UI/UX design, web design, and even psychology. Unlike the design-related fields, Interaction Design is less about appearance and more about function. It handles the challenge of experts not properly understanding how someone inexperienced with the material may interact with it. It requires an understanding of the process used by those who are intended to use it. An experienced interaction designer must attempt to view their functions through the eyes of someone new to the content instead of themself because someone experienced will not experience the same troubles a new person would. Though this can be done through self-testing and a plain understanding of others, one evolved method of interaction design testing is creating prototypes and having others test them. It’s growing ever more important to understand how an audience interacts with a product, and it’s especially important to understand how different types of people act too, as everyone has a separate experience. Interaction design, then, is an invaluable asset to any design or product to add easy functionality to everything. Skipping this process may lead to extremely faulty designs, making it essential to modern design.

Interaction design is the methodical form of design concerning user experience with a certain creation. Whether that’s a physical or digital item, the personalized needs of the user are addressed in varying forms. The greatest challenges seem to be the complexities throughout the process of designing a proper user interface with the user in mind. There are many variables that dabble in a multitude of studies and mediums, and it is understood that each artist of interaction design is essentially working through a thick shadow of vagueness and points that haven’t been articulated properly.

Interaction design is particularly growing in the direction of post-modern media that functions through types of computers. It draws from the fields of graphic design, psychology, anthropology, marketing, data analytics, ethnography, engineering, and now, website development, as well as other forms of computer software and hardware design and engineering. Its evolution seems to have grown into something increasingly technological, as well as increasingly oriented around products rather than devices or items on their own. There is a significant focus toward marketing language present in the text that illustrates this plainly to me.