Tuesday, April 21, 2009
PLAN : RESEARCH : ANALYZE : DESIGN : PRODUCE : DOCUMENT : EVALUATE
a process i wish i practiced more on a daily basis
Friday, April 17, 2009
What do Interaction Designers DO? (Part 2)
While we're on the subject definitions: here are some more thoughts:
Unlike print or web or products, a good interaction or experience doesn't require any physical media at all - I think of the best interactions or experiences I have had... and came to the quick conclusion that a good experience only requires the ability to perceive, interpret, translate and plug into what is already happening around us.
If you can tap into these perceptions and sensory experiences... that is your media.. however you want to do that. The tough part, I suppose, is knowing your audience well enough to be able to tell a story that engages those senses in a meaningful way.
Maybe this is what Interaction design is really about... taking a closer look at HOW we experience and interact and then being more flexible with the WHAT...
Unlike print or web or products, a good interaction or experience doesn't require any physical media at all - I think of the best interactions or experiences I have had... and came to the quick conclusion that a good experience only requires the ability to perceive, interpret, translate and plug into what is already happening around us.
If you can tap into these perceptions and sensory experiences... that is your media.. however you want to do that. The tough part, I suppose, is knowing your audience well enough to be able to tell a story that engages those senses in a meaningful way.
Maybe this is what Interaction design is really about... taking a closer look at HOW we experience and interact and then being more flexible with the WHAT...
What do Interaction Designers DO?
I have been trying to figure out what Interaction Design actually is.
There is a lot of talk these days about defining or redefining what Interaction Designers do... or maybe more specifically - what they make.
Maybe this is because no one really knows for sure if they ARE an interaction designer.
I suppose the obsession with categorization could be solved by creating some kind of all-encompassing definintion - but I wonder if the very act of definition will somehow limit designer's abilities to move throughout multiple areas and multiple disciplines at once...
..an ability that seems to be the most defining characteristic of the field so far - strangely enough.
There is a lot of talk these days about defining or redefining what Interaction Designers do... or maybe more specifically - what they make.
Maybe this is because no one really knows for sure if they ARE an interaction designer.
I suppose the obsession with categorization could be solved by creating some kind of all-encompassing definintion - but I wonder if the very act of definition will somehow limit designer's abilities to move throughout multiple areas and multiple disciplines at once...
..an ability that seems to be the most defining characteristic of the field so far - strangely enough.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Peyton Manning Pep Talks
I don't have a TV so I missed these ads when they aired, but they are kind of fantastic. you could even make your own for a while - it was great.
A friend's facebook status reminded me how much I love lists.
I've been writing them forever and saving them for almost as long. I have lists for lots of different things. I recently ran across an old journal entry from 2004 about lists:
"...Lists are about organizing. Organizing thoughts, organizing events, times, places, people. We design lists everyday. Our to-do lists. Very designed. Not in appearance, but content. And I think that is what interest me about writing lists. It is not so much how they are designed but how they are composed.
Some are organized by day. Some by matter of importance. Some by time or schedule. Other lists are color coded. (My to-do list usually, but not always starts with something I have already done just so I can cross it off without really having to do anything at all.) Telephone Books, grocery store receipts, inventories of any kind, Christmas lists, birthday lists, attendance rosters, tables, charts. Lists on paper are designed differently than lists on a computer or in a hand-held device.
What else about lists? They are markers of sorts. They organize, categorize, segment and compile sometimes what seems to be complex thoughts or structures in a way that is easily understandable or comprehensible. How do the items in the list relate to each other? They are in the list together for a particular reason. Whoever wrote the list had a very specific set of ideas in mind when putting it together... or maybe not...."
"...Lists are about organizing. Organizing thoughts, organizing events, times, places, people. We design lists everyday. Our to-do lists. Very designed. Not in appearance, but content. And I think that is what interest me about writing lists. It is not so much how they are designed but how they are composed.
Some are organized by day. Some by matter of importance. Some by time or schedule. Other lists are color coded. (My to-do list usually, but not always starts with something I have already done just so I can cross it off without really having to do anything at all.) Telephone Books, grocery store receipts, inventories of any kind, Christmas lists, birthday lists, attendance rosters, tables, charts. Lists on paper are designed differently than lists on a computer or in a hand-held device.
What else about lists? They are markers of sorts. They organize, categorize, segment and compile sometimes what seems to be complex thoughts or structures in a way that is easily understandable or comprehensible. How do the items in the list relate to each other? They are in the list together for a particular reason. Whoever wrote the list had a very specific set of ideas in mind when putting it together... or maybe not...."
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