http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Interaction-Design A listing of the most recently indexed works about Interaction Design in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Interaction-Design http://tc.eserver.org/35791.html http://tc.eserver.org/35791.html A group blog on social interaction design for social media by practitioners. http://tc.eserver.org/35793.html http://tc.eserver.org/35793.html What is SxD? Design of social media. It involves all web design disciplines: User Interface, Interaction design, Experience design, and Information Architecture. Social media include networked applications that permit direct and indirect, private and public communication and interaction. Social media platforms may be computer-based or mobile, even game platforms. http://tc.eserver.org/35794.html http://tc.eserver.org/35794.html With the growth and development of information and communication technology, relationships, communities and cultures have been dramatically affected, especially as a result of the increasing accessibility and speed of communication platforms. However, as people incorporate these emerging technologies into their social interactions, there results a tendency to lose touch with social nuances, cultural values, and the characteristics of traditional society. In this study, it is argued that social activities are inherently embodied in a cultural context. Therefore, a field study of tea drinking, as a traditional social activity in Taiwan, is presented with the purpose of revealing the abundant cultural features of this activity. Because these features merge with and influence people's social lives, developing a deeper understanding of this relationship could serve to enrich computer-mediated communication or interaction designs in the future. In this study, multiple user experience research methods are applied in exploring Taiwan's tea drinking customs, and, based on the findings, an enhanced cultural model is proposed to show the cultural significance of this activity. In addition, several design implications for software related to social interaction and cultural inheritance are offered. It is concluded that the cultural characteristics of a society should be a key issue in developing interaction designs. http://tc.eserver.org/35797.html http://tc.eserver.org/35797.html The use of digital products and services has expanded from largely instrumental, work-oriented settings to include entertainment, leisure, personal communication, and other classes of hedonistic use. The development of foundational concepts in the interaction design community to succeed usability and utility has lagged behind considerably. I argue that interaction design would benefit from attempts to articulate experiential qualities of digital products and services, and illustrate the approach by presenting the concept of fluency. It refers to the degree of gracefulness with which the user deals with multiple demands for her attention and action, particularly in augmented spaces where the user moves through shifting ecologies of people, physical objects, and digital media. I develop the concept of fluency by analyzing a range of digital artifacts in use situations, addressing the main themes of (1) social norms and practices and (2) peripheral interaction and calm technology. In terms of research methodology, this paper illustrates how design and criticism can be merged to construct elements of transferable knowledge for communication with design-research communities. http://tc.eserver.org/35798.html http://tc.eserver.org/35798.html Product experience is influenced by information from all the senses. Our experiments provide insight into how sounds contribute to the overall experience of a product's expression. We manipulated the sounds of dust busters and juicers so that they either did or did not fit the expressions of the products' appearances. In some, but not all cases, we found an inverse relationship between the degree-of-fit of a sound and the degree of surprise evoked. Furthermore, we found in some cases that the expression of a product's sound influenced the overall expression of that product. http://tc.eserver.org/35762.html http://tc.eserver.org/35762.html The popular JavaScript library jQuery is an amazing way to extend the design possibilities of your site beyond what CSS can do. But luckily, if you are already comfortable with CSS, you have a huge head start in jQuery! This is a very basic introduction to including jQuery on your web page and getting started writing a few functions. http://tc.eserver.org/35763.html http://tc.eserver.org/35763.html Starting off where we left off last time, we continue exploring the possibilities of jQuery. We revisit some of the old functions and make them do some smarter things. We explore a simple variable and an IF/ELSE statement. Then we look at the AJAX-y .load() function, the CSS function, and then finish off by writing out own custom function and going over how that layer of abstraction can help us keep our code clean. Semantics counts in JavaScript too! http://tc.eserver.org/35764.html http://tc.eserver.org/35764.html This video focuses on taking an already existing idea and code and turning it into a jQuery plugin. In this case it helps keep our code as semantic as it can be, and with JavaScript off, degrades nicely. We cover the syntax of creating a plugin, show off the cool chain-ability of jQuery, and show how to make the plugin versatile and expandable. http://tc.eserver.org/35768.html http://tc.eserver.org/35768.html Windows Presentation Foundation is a cross-browser cross-platform cross-device implementation of .NET for building and delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. http://tc.eserver.org/35643.html http://tc.eserver.org/35643.html In my column, On Good Behavior, I’ll explore the essentials of good interaction design. This first column provides a brief introduction to interaction design—defining the scope this column will cover—then explores some key design principles. What is interaction design? http://tc.eserver.org/35655.html http://tc.eserver.org/35655.html The arrow and its brethren are everywhere on our computer screens. For example, a quick examination of the Firefox 3.0 browser, shown in Figure 1 in its standard configuration, yields eight examples of arrows—Forward, Back, and Reload buttons, scroll bar controls, and drop-down menus that reveal search engine, history, and bookmark choices. http://tc.eserver.org/35600.html http://tc.eserver.org/35600.html This tutorial is intended for practitioners who have come to interaction design from a research, psychology, information architecture, or other non-design background. It focuses on what happens after the requirements are done and before you build your first prototype. Design fields such as graphic arts, architecture, and industrial design have long-standing practices for innovative design, and these apply well to interaction design. http://tc.eserver.org/35601.html http://tc.eserver.org/35601.html An SME is someone who has been trained and has worked in the area that is being targeted for the new application. At Autodesk, we have found that pairing SMEs with Interaction Designers is the most efficient and successful way of meeting user centered design goals. http://tc.eserver.org/35487.html http://tc.eserver.org/35487.html It's not uncommon to hear people complaining about the poor user experience of some B2B and enterprise applications. Read through these top tips to help you design enterprise applications that offer a better user experience and increase productivity. http://tc.eserver.org/35493.html http://tc.eserver.org/35493.html When writing software, *please* don't give error messages that are only meaningful to developers of the software. Microsoft used to be awful for this: "System fault at DEAD:BEEF, please contact your system administrator". Which would've been cool, except that I *was* the system administrator. http://tc.eserver.org/35291.html http://tc.eserver.org/35291.html The issue of accidentally activating the browser back button through the keyboard while interacting with a long web form is applicable to users across expertise levels. The time and effort wasted by the user can be said as proportional to the number of input fields filled by the user before accidentally exiting the page. Since no application feedback indicating cause of the error to the user is provided, depending upon user expertise, the user may or may not realize the cause of the error. Realizing what went wrong does not guarantee the possibility of reverting the error either. This leads to unnecessary loss in form conversions despite favorable user intent. A solution to resolve this issue (that the author hopes becomes standard practice) to plug the hole for lost conversion that translates to big numbers in absolute terms for high traffic websites is also provided. http://tc.eserver.org/35276.html http://tc.eserver.org/35276.html ACID is the Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design. We find better ways for people to interact with each other using communication technologies. Our expertise lies in helping people participate in the digital world. http://tc.eserver.org/35236.html http://tc.eserver.org/35236.html Once you’ve come up with tons of ideas, how do you choose which ones are worth pursuing? You use a set of design principles that will not only help select the best ideas, but guide the design through refinement, prototyping, development, and beyond. But first, let’s diverge and come up with concepts. http://tc.eserver.org/35238.html http://tc.eserver.org/35238.html As an Interaction Designer, I’m perpetually impressed with the continual design success inherent in most video games. We are taught to know our users by understanding their goals, leveraging mental models, and taking ourselves out of the equation in order to design useful and appropriate interfaces. And although a user-centered design approach is invaluable, I can’t help but wonder how game designers just seem to nail it time and again for what are large and diverse audiences. http://tc.eserver.org/35228.html http://tc.eserver.org/35228.html When you’re knee-deep in wireframes or CSS it’s all too easy to end up in a bubble of IxD books and blogs. One option is to take inspiration from vintage art and nature, but what about what other smart people are doing in their respective disciplines? In other words, why not steal from them? Here are my picks of a few other fields with ideas worth appropriating, or at least glancing at. http://tc.eserver.org/35229.html http://tc.eserver.org/35229.html Given just a bit of information, we naturally crave more. Given a puzzle, we have to solve it. So, as interaction designers, how are we using this bit of insight into human behavior? http://tc.eserver.org/35230.html http://tc.eserver.org/35230.html I live and breathe user experience design, and yet it took me two years to get myself the device referenced by almost every single presentation about user experience since 2007… Apple’s iPhone. My reasons were very specific and perhaps boring, but what is interesting is the perspective this wait has afforded me. Since it was released, the iPhone has grabbed an astonishing share of mobile Web traffic, been regarded as a “game-changer” in both the design and business worlds, and has even been referred to as the “Jesus Phone.” Now that I’ve owned one for two weeks I’ve developed a different perspective. The iPhone is surprisingly difficult to use, but it sure is fun! And that is why it’s a game-changer. http://tc.eserver.org/35231.html http://tc.eserver.org/35231.html It’s happened to all of us. We walk into what we think is a Web redesign project, only to find we have unwittingly ignited the fires of WW III in our client’s organization. What begins as a simple design project descends – quickly – into an intra-organizational battle, with the unprepared interaction designer caught in the crossfire. What is it about design projects that seem to attract such power struggles? Contrary to what you might think, being stuck in the middle of an internecine battle is actually an opportunity to effect meaningful change on your client’s organization. But it requires a set of practical tools to negotiate these battles and a more sophisticated language and knowledge to exploit these events to create meaningful change. http://tc.eserver.org/35232.html http://tc.eserver.org/35232.html Through the designs we create, we have the ability to directly influence another person’s behavior. The ethical implications of this are important and not easily definable. I was interested in ethics before I ever considered becoming a designer, but the lessons I learned while studying philosophy impacts the way I view my designs. In nature, our goal is a good one. We strive to help others by improving the interactions that define their life. This drives us to create and innovate new ways of interacting with old concepts. The question remains, do we have the right to influence another person? Further, are there guiding principles we can follow that can keep us on the moral path? The answers to these questions rests on the shoulders of the whole community, not a single person or group. http://tc.eserver.org/35233.html http://tc.eserver.org/35233.html The watchclock is another kind of interaction design, one whose function corrals the user into a single, linear, constrained sort of behavior. The night watchman has a fundamental social constraint — the desire to not get fired from their job. This constraint allows the watchclock patrol system to work so effectively (some would say insidiously) as an interaction design instrument of control. http://tc.eserver.org/35178.html http://tc.eserver.org/35178.html The role of the interaction designer is to specify the interface’s behaviors and elements, so that engineers know what to build and how the product should operate. This documentation is commonly known as a UI specification or UI spec. There are several applications for authoring a UI spec, with wikis being a relatively new tool. However, designers should be aware of a wiki’s benefits and drawbacks for documentation, since UI specs uniquely reflect a project and its context. The documentation needs are often based on the size of the project, launch date, team dynamics, audience, technology, and the product development process. The development process usually plays a major role in how teams interact and how work is completed or delivered, thus, there is a direct relationship between the UI spec and the process the team is using. http://tc.eserver.org/34991.html http://tc.eserver.org/34991.html With the rise of Web pages providing interactive support for problem-solving or providing large amounts of information on which a person is expected to act, designers and writers need to consider how a person interacts with increasingly complex information-rich environments and how they intend to use the information. This article examines some of the theory underlying why people make errors early in the problem-solving process when they form an intention. Since these errors are cognitively-based and occur before any physical action, it is harder to analyze their cause or incorporate changes to reduce them in a design. It examines factors which contribute to user errors and which designers and writers must consider to produce documents which reduce user errors in forming intentions. http://tc.eserver.org/34956.html http://tc.eserver.org/34956.html The Indian community of Interaction Designers and Usability Professionals is growing by rate of 20% annually which is far too less. Around 6 to 8 new design institutes have suddenly opened up in past couple of years (to name a few- Symbiosis Institute of Design, MAEER MIT’s Institute of Design and Creative-I College, Pune, Raffles Design International, Mumbai, IILM School of Design, Gurgaon, Wigan & Leigh College, New Delhi) But all these are indirect contributors to interaction design, as they do not offer education in that area. http://tc.eserver.org/34568.html http://tc.eserver.org/34568.html If we simply look at what's already working well, and why, we can give ourselves two things we desperately need: a starting point for the design, and insight into to how to create better-stronger-faster interactions that are just as easy to use as the old classics. http://tc.eserver.org/34514.html http://tc.eserver.org/34514.html There are a exponentially growing amount of applications being developed. Some of them vanish at an early stage, while others grow to be quite (and sometimes extremely) popular. What really dazzles me is how sucky many of them (both the popular and the unpopular ones) are regarding how they deal with user-interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/34471.html http://tc.eserver.org/34471.html Human-computer interaction (HCI) is an area of research and practice that emerged in the early 1980s, initially as a specialty area in computer science. HCI has expanded rapidly and steadily for three decades, attracting professionals from many other disciplines and incorporating diverse concepts and approaches. To a considerable extent, HCI now aggregates a collection of semi-distinct fields of research and practice in human-centered informatics. However, the continuing synthesis of disparate conceptions and approaches to science and practice in HCI has produced a dramatic example of how different epistemologies and paradigms can be reconciled and integrated. http://tc.eserver.org/34383.html http://tc.eserver.org/34383.html Ayer os presentaba dos excelentes galerías de proyectos desarrollados en jQuery. Hoy, para no ser menos, vamos a seguir hablando de jQuery. Lo que ahora os presento es una recopilación de 7 sistemas de navegación que nos os dejarán indiferentes. http://tc.eserver.org/34169.html http://tc.eserver.org/34169.html Software companies and other parties involved begin to use the power of a distinct visual design to express both their brand identity and custom interactive design solutions to the users. While this implies a new freedom for designers working in the field of interactive software products, it strengthens the importance of visual design for the design of user interfaces. Designers working on concrete graphic solutions for a specific interface are breaking away from established standards defined by a software vendor. It is now the responsibility of those user interface designers to choose graphical elements wisely to make a product’s interaction principles visible and usable. http://tc.eserver.org/33715.html http://tc.eserver.org/33715.html From its inception as a global hypertext system, the Web has evolved into a universal platform for deploying loosely coupled distributed applications. As we move toward the next-generation Web platform, the bulk of user data and applications will reside in the network cloud. Ubiquitous access results from interaction delivered as Web pages augmented by JavaScript to create highly reactive user interfaces. This point in the evolution of the Web is often called Web 2.0. In predicting what comes after Web 2.0--what I call 2^W, a Web that encompasses all Web-addressable information--I go back to the architectural foundations of the Web, analyze the move to Web 2.0, and look forward to what might follow. http://tc.eserver.org/33571.html http://tc.eserver.org/33571.html Photo albums from previous presentations of Games To Explain Human Factors. http://tc.eserver.org/33532.html http://tc.eserver.org/33532.html One of the coolest new features in Adobe Encore CS4 is the ability to insert pop-up menus over video in Blu-ray Disc projects, a feature unique among authoring programs in Encore’s class. In this tutorial, I’ll describe how to implement that feature, as I did in a simple project I produced in early fall. http://tc.eserver.org/33488.html http://tc.eserver.org/33488.html What can the User Experience field learn from the world of museums? Peter Samis and Tana Johnson of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Interactive Technologies Team can help answer the question. The issues that they grapple with (and solve through inventive design) are firmly grounded in the goal of providing exceptional and inspiring museum experiences. http://tc.eserver.org/33453.html http://tc.eserver.org/33453.html Usage goes down as interaction costs increase. User motivation determines how fast demand drops, following an elasticity curve. http://tc.eserver.org/33434.html http://tc.eserver.org/33434.html My most recent captology course at Stanford focused on 10 ways computers manipulate people. In total, I've found about 60 strategies that software can use to change what people think and do. http://tc.eserver.org/33438.html http://tc.eserver.org/33438.html Our lab has been investigating how computer-based narratives can change people's beliefs and behaviors. http://tc.eserver.org/33439.html http://tc.eserver.org/33439.html Computer technology opens new doors for researching, creating, and distributing WIN (interactivity and narrative) experiences. Increased insight in this area could create a potential to change people’s attitudes and behaviors in ways never before possible. For example, in researching WIN experiences, our online system can now test stories to identify which stories have an impact on specific types of people. Alternately in creating WIN experiences, a computer could glean information from an interaction in order to select a specific story from a large database of proven stories. From a distribution standpoint, WIN experiences could be delivered through mobile handsets, increasing reach beyond the desktop. The potential for impact is significant. Computer-supported WIN experiences could lead to large-scale interventions to improve health, enhance learning and training, boost workplace performance, and motivate participation in civic life. http://tc.eserver.org/33389.html http://tc.eserver.org/33389.html Think of Web 2.0 as more of a concept than a person, place or thing and you'll find firmer ground. Even better, spend some quality time with O'Reilly's lengthy essay. Finally, keep in mind that the lion's share of Web 2.0 discussion is from a technological perspective; it hasn't yet filtered down to the information architecture, interaction design and similar discussion lists. http://tc.eserver.org/33292.html http://tc.eserver.org/33292.html Thoughts on interactive architecture, business and design. http://tc.eserver.org/33193.html http://tc.eserver.org/33193.html the European Thematic Network for the human-centered design of interactive technologies. Convivio supports and promotes the development of "convivial technologies", ICT products, systems and services that enhance the quality of everyday life and human interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/33210.html http://tc.eserver.org/33210.html Evaluation is a fundamental part of human-computer interaction (HCI). Good HCI practice tells designers to evaluate: evaluate requirements, evaluate designs, evaluate prototypes. The purpose of evaluation is to improve the usability of a software system; that is to make it easy to use, easy to learn, effective and enjoyable. But what is usability and what makes one device easier to use than another? Traditional HCI theory has produced a number of evaluation techniques and guidelines. These are based on some basic psychological assumptions which date back to the sixties. http://tc.eserver.org/33042.html http://tc.eserver.org/33042.html 很多人难以理解我的那篇“以人为中心的设计是有害的”文章。 （哈哈，下面这样说可能有些保守！关于这个问题，肯定有五百篇评论和博客文章。） 特别地，我没能够清楚地说明“以活动为中心的设计”是什么意思，以及它和“以人为中心的设计”是如何的不同。 一些人好像认为我彻底抛弃了我以前说过的话。另外一些人则简单地认为我疯了。还有一些人则急匆匆地出来解释我那样说的含义。 http://tc.eserver.org/32968.html http://tc.eserver.org/32968.html Every paper and digital document shares three basic dimensions: structure, information and presentation. Although these dimensions are always interwoven, some people in the digital world mostly focus on document structures (e.g. information architects), some on the information they contain (e.g. marketers and writers/editors) while others specialise in the (interactive) presentation aspects (e.g. visual designers and Flash developers). The mutual dependence and interaction of these dimensions is the next level of design and does not regularly get the proper attention. In order to better understand the relationship between these dimensions, we need to look at each of them seperately, and how they inter-relate. http://tc.eserver.org/33008.html http://tc.eserver.org/33008.html Human-Centered Design has become such a dominant theme in design that it is now accepted by interface and application designers automatically, without thought, let alone criticism. That’s a dangerous state – when things are treated as accepted wisdom. The purpose of this essay is to provoke thought, discussion, and reconsideration of some of the fundamental principles of Human-Centered Design. These principles, I suggest, can be helpful, misleading, or wrong. At times, they might even be harmful. Activity-Centered Design is superior. http://tc.eserver.org/33009.html http://tc.eserver.org/33009.html 在设计界，以人为中心的设计已经成为一个占统治地位的主题，以至于它经常被界面和应用设计人员不加思考地加以采用，更不要说是用一种带有批判的眼光加以采用。这是一种危险的状态――当某些事情被当作是被广泛认可的知识来对待时。这篇文章的目的就是要引起人们对于以人为中心设计方法的基本原理的重新思考和讨论。我认为，这些原理可能是有益的，有误导性的，或是是错误的。有时候，它们甚至可能是有害的。以活动为中心的设计是更好的一种方法。 http://tc.eserver.org/33010.html http://tc.eserver.org/33010.html HCD has developed as a limited view of design. Instead of looking at a person’s entire activity, it has primarily focused upon page-by-page analysis, screen-by-screen. As a result, sequences, interruptions, ill-defined goals – all the aspects of real activities, have been ignored. And error messages – there should not be any error messages. All messages should contain explanations and offer alternative ways of proceeding from the message itself. http://tc.eserver.org/32832.html http://tc.eserver.org/32832.html It is the primary goal of this text to better define Interaction Design: to provide a definition that encompasses the intellectual facets of the field, the conceptual underpinnings of Interaction Design as a legitimate human-centered field, and the particular methods used by practitioners in their day to day experiences. http://tc.eserver.org/32707.html http://tc.eserver.org/32707.html Flashmo.com provides FREE flash templates, flash photo gallery, 3D Photo Gallery, 3D thumbnail gallery, free flash intro, flash MP3 player, flash websites or .FLA source files. http://tc.eserver.org/32671.html http://tc.eserver.org/32671.html Learn how easy it is to apply web interaction using jQuery. http://tc.eserver.org/32673.html http://tc.eserver.org/32673.html This episode is revisiting the image cross fade effect, in particular Dragon Interactive has a beautiful little transition for their navigation that some readers have been requesting. Greg Johnson takes it one step further to implement this method using jQuery and the methods shown here. http://tc.eserver.org/32648.html http://tc.eserver.org/32648.html Deep down below the layers of interface, CSS, HTML, and XML—down where only the geekiest among us roam—everything comes down to this: it’s all zeroes and ones. On or off. The digital switch Though interaction and conversion becomes a bit more complicated at the point the interface meets the visitor, though there are a few more shades of gray, in the end it comes down to the same thing: yes or no. http://tc.eserver.org/32630.html http://tc.eserver.org/32630.html A profound change is happening on the cutting-edge of web development: we are relinquishing control of information. No longer are sites working independently from each other; no longer is information sitting in isolation with no interaction between sites. Rather, the best web programmers are now creating sites that allow information to be reused anywhere. http://tc.eserver.org/32598.html http://tc.eserver.org/32598.html Discover a technique that lets you move sections of a Web page using drag-and-drop functions. Different aspects of the interactivity are implemented separately and then composed into a unified whole, allowing for flexible customization that can make your Web users very happy. http://tc.eserver.org/32467.html http://tc.eserver.org/32467.html Abuse has made me seriously consider – several times – disabling comments. I’m ambivalent about it. On the one hand it would make writing and publishing much easier. Write something, proofread it, publish. http://tc.eserver.org/32472.html http://tc.eserver.org/32472.html While exploring the options for traversing JSON, I discovered that there is no official W3C documentation, or even a draft. As a subset of the ECMAScript language specification, it will probably remain under the governance of ECMA International. So unlike XPath, which is a commonly accepted language for traversing XML, JSON must rely on JavaScript’s object notation. http://tc.eserver.org/32390.html http://tc.eserver.org/32390.html Today I’d like to start an article series of three parts, the result of which will be a popout-style, jQuery-based box like the one pictured above, which I think strikes a nice balance on the obtrusion-scale. http://tc.eserver.org/32391.html http://tc.eserver.org/32391.html We're going to take the ad we built last week and animate it, as well as provide the user with a means to open and close the ad. We’ll be using jQuery for most of what we do, so you’ll need to include the jQuery library script at the top of your document for this to work (see the source of the example page to see how this is done). http://tc.eserver.org/32392.html http://tc.eserver.org/32392.html Generating footnotes for HTML documents in the past was always a slow, painful task — and every time I did it, I wondered why there wasn’t a better, easier way. Today, I’m happy to announce that I’ve come up with a better solution to web footnotes using the jQuery JavaScript framework and a few tags and attributes that already exist in XHTML. http://tc.eserver.org/32415.html http://tc.eserver.org/32415.html Today’s tutorial will show you how to hide away extra bits of content using CSS and JavaScript, to be revealed at the click of a button. This is a great technique, because displaying the additional content doesn’t require a refresh or navigation to a new page and all your content is still visible to search engine bots that don’t pay any attention to CSS or JavaScript. http://tc.eserver.org/32286.html http://tc.eserver.org/32286.html This article considers a neglected but crucial aspect of the new business of mobile interactivity: the premium rate data services industry. It provides an international anatomy of this industry model and the ways in which it has been used to capitalize upon the surprising success of short message service (SMS) to provide a basis for the development of consumer markets for mobile data services. It situates this analysis within a wider consideration of the role of premium rate culture in the social shaping of interactivity in convergent media. Specifically, it looks at how premium rate services are being constructed in relation to telecommunications, television and the internet. The article concludes that although premium rate culture has rejuvenated innovation in broadcast television, potentially it may constrain the interactive potential of the mobile internet. http://tc.eserver.org/32238.html http://tc.eserver.org/32238.html I recently conducted a study into the helpfulness (or lack thereof) of zebra striping—the shading of alternate rows in a table or form. The study measured performance as users completed a series of tasks and found no statistically significant improvement in accuracy—and very little statistically significant improvement in speed when zebra stripes were implemented. http://tc.eserver.org/32063.html http://tc.eserver.org/32063.html I am not going to insult your intellence and try to teach you how to use Adobe Flex because frankly, I am just learning. Over the past few months, every major project and intitiative I’ve heard about has components built using Adobe Flex. With the emergence of Flash as a usable technology and ActionScript as a top notch coding language, Adobe Flex has quickly become the hottest new tool in ubertrendy web development circles. http://tc.eserver.org/31976.html http://tc.eserver.org/31976.html Interaction design for new technological environments relies on the tradition of human-computer interaction (HCI). With roots in the 1980s, HCI design paradigms often reflect the setting in which the user is an office worker in front of a desktop computer. As computational power can now be embedded in almost any type of product, the desktop setting has lost much of its relevance as a starting point for interface design. In particular, interfaces for wearable computing challenge designers to look for completely new approaches to interaction design. In this article, we propose a method in which the ideas for new creative forms of interaction design are triggered through panel work. This method draws on an underpinning theoretical framework from structural semiotics that emphasizes the holistic nature of design. http://tc.eserver.org/31957.html http://tc.eserver.org/31957.html Somewhere in between presenting static information graphics and complex, interactive data dashboards there’s a need for a way to visualize moderately dynamic data on the web. Oftentimes the solutions you see implemented are clunky, for example, manually creating multiple frames of various data points and uploading them by hand. http://tc.eserver.org/31917.html http://tc.eserver.org/31917.html User interface designers have more interactive options than ever for presenting content. So, we can make meaningful strides toward offering users the right content in the right place, at the right time, in the right amount. However, these rich options for interactively presenting content also come with a challenge. http://tc.eserver.org/31874.html http://tc.eserver.org/31874.html The 2008 IA Summit was held April 10–14, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Miami, Florida, shown in Figure 1. It had the highest attendance in the conference’s nine-year history: Over 600 people signed up for the conference run by ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science and Technology). All the signs are that information architecture (IA) is a community and a practice that is growing, and that its sister disciplines—interaction design (IxD) and experience design—are well-represented at the conference—not just in terms of attendees, but also speakers. http://tc.eserver.org/31869.html http://tc.eserver.org/31869.html Computing technologies are becoming so familiar it can feel as if they have always been here. It is strange to think that the mouse, for instance, was invented by Doug Englebart in the seventies. He must encounter a degree of incredulity when he mentions this to people. “You invented the mouse? Really? How nice. Did you also invent the pen?” http://tc.eserver.org/31778.html http://tc.eserver.org/31778.html We humans are wired to seek interaction with other people. Complex language and reasoning powers support your interactive nature. Your brain can retrieve and store unlimited amounts of information from everyday interactions and use that information to think, analyze, and solve complex problems. http://tc.eserver.org/31641.html http://tc.eserver.org/31641.html To tackle the classic “how to prototype rich interactions” problem, Alexa Andrzejewski developed a process for translating static screen designs (from wireframes to visual comps) into interactive experiences using Flash. Requiring some fairly basic ActionScript knowledge, these prototypes proved to be a quick yet powerful way to bring interaction designs to life. http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html In this podcast, Noz Urbina talks about how Web 2.0 is changing the role of the technical communicator into one who drives product R&D and interaction design. The interview covers how the role of the technical communicator has evolved into a diversity of roles; how awareness of user needs and requirements allows technical communicators to get involved in product R&D and user interaction design; and how implementing a backwards flow of data from hundreds of internal and external users changes the role of a technical writer to one who aggregates, synthesizes, and ensures quality rather than one who merely writes. http://tc.eserver.org/30796.html http://tc.eserver.org/30796.html An interview with Dan Saffer, 2008 Conference Chair and IxDA Director. Dan discusses the context of the organization, how the conference emerged and formed, what the conference will be like, and how one might get a flavor even if attendance is not an option. http://tc.eserver.org/30632.html http://tc.eserver.org/30632.html An interview with David Malouf on his article, Foundations of Interaction Design. We discuss several foundations of Interaction design including time, metaphor, abstraction, and negative space. David also provides greater detail to comments posted on his article from readers from around the world. http://tc.eserver.org/30461.html http://tc.eserver.org/30461.html Blog on interface design, interaction design and usability. http://tc.eserver.org/30448.html http://tc.eserver.org/30448.html An action possibility available in the environment to an individual, independent of the individual's ability to perceive this possibility. http://tc.eserver.org/30442.html http://tc.eserver.org/30442.html Featuritis or creeping featurism is the tendency for the number of features in a product (usually software product) to rise with each release of the product. What may have been a cohesive and consistent design in the early versions may end up as a patchwork of added features. And with extra features comes extra complexity. http://tc.eserver.org/30447.html http://tc.eserver.org/30447.html In the fields of HCI and interaction design the term is however most often used as 'making something material from something abstract.' In other words 'thingifying' something abstract (like an idea, a work practice, a social relationshiop) or at least making a representation of it. http://tc.eserver.org/30224.html http://tc.eserver.org/30224.html AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX has recently been gaining attention as a way to make web applications more interactive. While it can reduce apparent latency between user interaction and application response, it can cause user interface, maintainability, and accessibility issues. http://tc.eserver.org/30135.html http://tc.eserver.org/30135.html This paper presents three methods of user assistance: role models (simple demonstrations), guides (structured walk-throughs), and coaches (active assistants). After a brief introduction, potential uses, available development tools, and additional information sources are discussed for each method. http://tc.eserver.org/30046.html http://tc.eserver.org/30046.html Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is designed to allow access to the Internet on a mobile phone. Attempts to explain its limited success have focused on attitudinal and cognitive reasons for non-use, finding that although people recognize the benefits of WAP, issues like lack of content, privacy concerns, and reference group behavior account for non-use. Such explanations have also been incomplete in that they have not addressed problems related to actual use and interaction with the technology. Our article studies the use of WAP as situated action. We focus on how users make sense of WAP pages and how they disambiguate in situ the responses from the service, i.e., new pages and new menus. Our method of transcribing videos of WAP use following the conventions of conversation analysis offers a cost-effective tool for understanding user interaction with technology and provides useful implications for design. http://tc.eserver.org/30012.html http://tc.eserver.org/30012.html Abstract user interface prototypes offer designers a form of representation for specification and exploration of visual and interaction design ideas that is intermediate between abstract task models and realistic or representational prototypes. Canonical Abstract Prototypes are an extension to usage-centered design that provides a formal vocabulary for expressing visual and interaction designs without concern for details of appearance and behavior. A standardized abstract design vocabulary facilitates comparison of designs, eases recognition and simplifies description of common design patterns, and lays the foundations for better software tools. This paper covers recent refinements in the modeling notation and the set of Canonical Abstract Components. New applications of abstract prototypes to design patterns are discussed, and variations in software tools support are outlined. http://tc.eserver.org/30013.html http://tc.eserver.org/30013.html Visual and interaction design for successful e-commerce Web sites and Web-based applications requires meticulous attention to detail. Because the smallest matters can ruin the user experience, an orderly process--such as usage-centered design--guided by robust principles is needed; iterative testing and repetitive redesign is inadequate to find and address all the diverse matters needing attention. This paper reviews basic principles and then surveys best practices in the detailed aspects of Web design in three broad areas: details of architecture or organization, details of interaction design, and details relating to commercial activity, especially shopping. Specific recommendations in each area are offered as examples of best practices based on usage-centered principles. http://tc.eserver.org/30008.html http://tc.eserver.org/30008.html Trust emerges from interaction. If trust in information systems is to be promoted, then attention must be directed, at least in part, to interaction design. This paper explores issues of trust in the interactions between users and systems from the perspective of interaction design. It considers a variety of pragmatic aspects in interaction design that impact user trust, including, predictability, interface stability, user control, and the match between expectations and performance. It critically examines contemporary design practices, such as adaptive interfaces, in terms of their impact on user trust. http://tc.eserver.org/29987.html http://tc.eserver.org/29987.html Software user guides have traditionally provided assistance when the user requested help. Context-sensitivity enabled help systems to predict the most appropriate topic to present. For Windows applications, the move from Microsoft WinHelp to the new Microsoft HTML Help format allows user instructions to be presented in the same window as the application. This offers technical authors some extraordinary opportunities to provide intelligent, predictive, interactive help without the user having to request it. In this paper, we will explore one of the first such interactive help systems (for the Archivist e-mail archiving software), and see where the technology is moving. http://tc.eserver.org/29991.html http://tc.eserver.org/29991.html Dynamic HTML can be used inventively in many ways. Here's a simple way in which tables and DHTML can be used together to provide a menu function. The technique may be used in a frameset, but to keep things simple, we are going to use the table to control 'targets' in an inline frame (or IFRAME). http://tc.eserver.org/29982.html http://tc.eserver.org/29982.html One of the little known features of DHTML, at least within Internet Explorer 5.5 or above, is an attribute known as contentEditable. This attribute can be used to make areas of text within a Web page editable by the user. This is very different from a form element, such as a text box, as contentEditable can make a table cell, or a standard paragraph editable. http://tc.eserver.org/29912.html http://tc.eserver.org/29912.html The medium is an integral part of the message when writing for interactive delivery systems. Interactive media requires attention to details on several dimensions for communication of the content. Writers must focus not only on words and meaning, but also on how the content is presented. We can look to other disciplines for models of how they document the translation of ideas into reality. The detailed design document or storyboard is the essential tool for describing multimedia content in all four dimensions. http://tc.eserver.org/29734.html http://tc.eserver.org/29734.html Use interactive multimedia with text-based online documentation to achieve the minimalist model pioneered by instructional design guru John Carroll. Non-linear modules of 'real' tasks help users get started fast, and quickly learn from any errors. http://tc.eserver.org/29592.html http://tc.eserver.org/29592.html Proceedings of a paper about how readers interact with designed documents. http://tc.eserver.org/29494.html http://tc.eserver.org/29494.html Interaction Design is distinct from the other design disciplines. It's not Information Architecture, Industrial Design or even User Experience Design. It also isn't user interface design. Interaction design is not about form or even structure, but is more ephemeral--about why and when rather than about what and how. http://tc.eserver.org/29358.html http://tc.eserver.org/29358.html Inspired by Don Norman's classic book, 'The Design of Everyday Things', I started to collect my own examples of bad designs to analyse according to interaction design principles. Here are just a few. http://tc.eserver.org/29291.html http://tc.eserver.org/29291.html Interaction design lies at the junction of several design disciplines. The resulting crossover between various specialties and issues is often muddled, understandably. There is no doubt that interaction design, as a design discipline, differs from applied human-computer interaction and cognitive psychology. These distinctions are omnipresent in the current literature. http://tc.eserver.org/28920.html http://tc.eserver.org/28920.html Amid the current hype of Web 2.0, rich has become the de facto buzzword suggesting fresh, sexy digital products, often marked by glossy buttons with AJAX-driven behaviors. But what does rich mean to a UI (user interface) designer who wants to craft intelligent, compelling, and memorable interactions? Given current digital and technological trends, today's UI designers must deepen their understanding of richness. Such an effort will strengthen designers' vocabularies (adding legitimacy and weight to client discussions), and enable designers to temper judgment when it comes to applying rich capabilities. http://tc.eserver.org/28684.html http://tc.eserver.org/28684.html Dan Saffer's Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices was an ambitious undertaking. In fewer than 300 pages, he has attempted to cover the history, current practice, and notions about the future of the rapidly evolving discipline of interaction design (IxD). Whether you are simply curious about interaction design, are entering the profession yourself, or are collaborating with an interaction designer, Designing for Interaction is a good place to start your journey down the road of interaction design. http://tc.eserver.org/28693.html http://tc.eserver.org/28693.html Other design disciplines use raw materials. Communication designers use basic visual elements such as the line. Industrial designers work with simple 3D shapes such as the cube, the sphere, and the cylinder. For interaction designers, who create products and services that can be digital (software) or analog (a karaoke machine) or both (a mobile phone), the design elements are more conceptual. And yet they offer a powerful set of components for interaction designers to bring to bear on their projects. http://tc.eserver.org/28518.html http://tc.eserver.org/28518.html Five years ago, Robert Reimann wrote a seminal article for the Cooper Newsletter called 'So You Want To Be an Interaction Designer.' Like many people, I read the article and said, yep, that's what I want to be. I took Reimann's (good) advice and found both work and training as an interaction designer. http://tc.eserver.org/28500.html http://tc.eserver.org/28500.html Prototypes often model one flow of interaction--the path that users are most likely to take. But when we create interaction designs with dynamic and complex flows, we often need to include deviations from the sunshine scenarios to see whether they work. In this article, we'll look at how to do this Visio and Axure. http://tc.eserver.org/28496.html http://tc.eserver.org/28496.html Selections of 'least favorite' designs from graduate students of the George Mason University Department of Psychology. http://tc.eserver.org/28465.html http://tc.eserver.org/28465.html Ajax, which consists of HTML, JavaScript™ technology, DHTML, and DOM, is an outstanding approach that helps you transform clunky Web interfaces into interactive Ajax applications. The author, an Ajax expert, demonstrates how these technologies work together -- from an overview to a detailed look -- to make extremely efficient Web development an easy reality. He also unveils the central concepts of Ajax, including the XMLHttpRequest object. http://tc.eserver.org/28413.html http://tc.eserver.org/28413.html One of the most fundamental factors in designing for screen-based media is: No-one likes looking at a computer screen. http://tc.eserver.org/28256.html http://tc.eserver.org/28256.html Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction is an explanation of the design of the current and next generation interactive technologies, such as the web, mobiles, wearables. These exciting new technologies bring additional challenges for designers and developers - challenges that require careful thought and a disciplined approach. Written for both students and practitioners from a broad range of backgrounds, this book addresses these challenges using a practical and refreshing approach. The text covers a wide range of issues, topics and paradigms that go beyond the traditional human-computer interaction (HCI). http://tc.eserver.org/28245.html http://tc.eserver.org/28245.html Where did the term interaction design come from? What exactly does it mean? And what do the people who call themselves interaction designers actually do? http://tc.eserver.org/28231.html http://tc.eserver.org/28231.html When asked to project 50 years ahead, a scientist is in a bit of a quandary. It is easy to indulge in wishful thinking, or to promote favorite current projects and proposals, but it is a daunting task to anticipate what will actually come to pass in a time span that is eons long in our modern accelerated age. If fifty years ago, when the ACM was founded, biologists had been asked to predict the next 50 years of biology, it would have taken amazing prescience to anticipate the science of molecular biology. Or for that matter, only a few years before the initiation of the ACM even those with the most insight about computing would have been completely unable to foresee today's world of pervasive workstations, mobile communicators, and gigabit networking. http://tc.eserver.org/28223.html http://tc.eserver.org/28223.html Web 2.0 defines a second phase of development of websites, its architecture and its functionality. http://tc.eserver.org/28204.html http://tc.eserver.org/28204.html There has certainly been a great deal of speculation lately regarding the real or perceived rise of Chinese industrial design. We say 'perceived rise' to emphasize that their impending world domination in this field is not a foregone conclusion, despite the frequent flurries of listserve chatter and design-conference panel discussions supporting such a notion. http://tc.eserver.org/28097.html http://tc.eserver.org/28097.html 'Standards': the word strikes fear in designers around the globe, and makes engineers lives so much easier that they bow at its alter. (Yes, this is an exaggeration for affect, but an important one.) But before we can dig a big deeper into standards for designers, we need to do some definition work. http://tc.eserver.org/28037.html http://tc.eserver.org/28037.html Language is a unique communication system and fundamental to the survival of human beings. Story telling is a very old method to describe the facts, to spread knowledge, to share our experiences and feelings. A good story can be accepted and stored by our brain instantly, and leaving a long term effect on us. At the same time, it is also easy for people to understand and accept new facts and imagine similar scenarios as they happen in their own lives. In the following paragraph, let's examine why Interaction Design is story telling. http://tc.eserver.org/27969.html http://tc.eserver.org/27969.html During our recent Virtual Seminar on home page design, several people asked about whether it makes a difference if links are underlined or not. It's a good question and one we get frequently. http://tc.eserver.org/27900.html http://tc.eserver.org/27900.html The main focus of this article is related to the forms of mediated content that are offered in online space. Two specific aspects of new cyber-textuality are discussed--the notion of hypertextuality and the potential of interactivity. Both characteristics are understood as new challenges that reflect specific communication potentials of the internet. In an empirical sense, the article tries to show the extent these significant forms of mediation are used in online media news. For this reason a comparison between media content in print and online media has been made. The findings reveal the lack of interactivity in practice and explore its diversity as a communication form between media producers and reader. Regarding the hypertextuality, the analysis shows the complexity of this concept, which in the realm of news media online is still maturing. http://tc.eserver.org/27876.html http://tc.eserver.org/27876.html An open-source encyclopedia of terms from the fields surrounding interaction design. http://tc.eserver.org/27875.html http://tc.eserver.org/27875.html A free, open-content, peer-reviewed Encyclopedia covering terms from the disciplines of Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design, Human Factors, Usability, Information Architecture, and related fields. http://tc.eserver.org/27745.html http://tc.eserver.org/27745.html Discover three Ajax data transport mechanisms (XMLHttp, script tags, and frames or iframes) and their relative strengths and weaknesses. This tutorial provides code for both the server side and the client side and explains it in detail to provide the techniques you need to put efficient Ajax controls anywhere you need them. http://tc.eserver.org/27718.html http://tc.eserver.org/27718.html It is often difficult to find the cursor when a web site is navigated using the keyboard. Where is the active link? With CSS the author of a web page can adjust how the active link is visualized. Inverted colors are the best way to highlight the active link. http://tc.eserver.org/27648.html http://tc.eserver.org/27648.html Tools like Captivate, Camtasia, and TurboDemo make it possible for teachers and communicators to create effective software simulations--without programming. Even simple presentation tools, such as PowerPoint can create truly interactive simulations. http://tc.eserver.org/27621.html http://tc.eserver.org/27621.html This article aims to give you an introduction to the foundations of remote scripting, in particular, the emerging XMLHttpRequest protocol. We'll then walk through an example application that demonstrates how to implement that protocol, while creating a usable interface. http://tc.eserver.org/27626.html http://tc.eserver.org/27626.html When they’re navigating through a long document, users often are confused or disoriented when they click a link that jumps to another location in that same document. http://tc.eserver.org/27630.html http://tc.eserver.org/27630.html XML is a very important base on which Web Services work, and, in conjunction with a number of client- and server-side languages, can be put to good effect. Let's see how we can use XML and client side JavaScript to display the contents of a XML file, access child elements, manipulate elements, and more! http://tc.eserver.org/27627.html http://tc.eserver.org/27627.html It’s no secret that over the last few years DHTML has been used almost exclusively for evil purposes. Users associate the technology with intrusive advertisements and error-prone pages, while developers associate it with browser detection and hideous hacks. http://tc.eserver.org/27620.html http://tc.eserver.org/27620.html AJAX opens up enormous possibilities for Web applications simply by allowing HTTP requests to be made in the background asynchronously (while other scripts on the page run and other user activity continues). http://tc.eserver.org/27555.html http://tc.eserver.org/27555.html One of the primary aspects of effective web experiences is interactivity. Although most Flash developers will try to state otherwise, the reality of the fact is that the majority of non-standard interactivity, that is interactivity beyond what the broswer provides automatically, is driven by JavaScript. Over the last few years the acceptance of both standards and some new JavaScript technologies such as XMLHttpRequest, or AJAX to the masses, has opened up a whole new realm of possibilites that have helped to bring JavaScript back into the mainstream focus as an important and leading-edge technology. The purpose of this series of articles is to introduce newcomers to the concepts and fundamentals of JavaScript, so that you can begin to leverage the power of this technology in your own web projects. http://tc.eserver.org/27559.html http://tc.eserver.org/27559.html If your Flash efforts need to go on some sort of weight loss program, here's a good place to start. http://tc.eserver.org/27557.html http://tc.eserver.org/27557.html Have you ever had to write a large amount of text into a field on an HTML form and been uncertain of just how reliable your spelling skills are? Wouldn't it be nice if HTML forms, like most other applications, had one of those handy little 'Spell Check' buttons? In this article we'll look at how easy it is to implement this functionality using a PHP/JavaScript solution called Speller Pages. http://tc.eserver.org/27558.html http://tc.eserver.org/27558.html When you start using After Effects, there will come a time when you look at the presets and think, 'Gosh, I am bored with these.' That will be the point where you discover Adobe has a wonderful sense of humor and you start using the Wiggler. In the text options, on the timeline, the Wiggly selector can be added to a chunk of text to randomize the values of any of the properties associated with that group. That description may sound rather formal, but when it comes to adding effects, randomness can lead to some happy surprises. Essentially you can have text bend, move, blur, spin, and so on by simply giving it some parameters for the effect. http://tc.eserver.org/27552.html http://tc.eserver.org/27552.html Put a new shine on your web applications. Tired of clunky web interfaces and waiting around for a page to reload? Well, it’s about time to give your web apps that pine-scented desktop application feel. What are we talking about? Just the newest thing to hit the Web: Ajax—asynchronous JavaScript and XML—and your ticket to building rich Internet applicationsthat are more interactive,responsive, and easy to use. So, grab your trial-size Ajax,included with every copy of Head Rush Ajax:we’re about to put some polish on your web apps. http://tc.eserver.org/27443.html http://tc.eserver.org/27443.html Progressive disclosure is an interaction design technique that sequences information and actions across several screens in order to reduce feelings of overwhelm for the user. By disclosing information progressively, you reveal only the essentials and help the user manage the complexity of feature-rich sites or applications. Progressive disclosure follows the typical notion of moving from 'abstract to specific'; only it may mean sequencing interactions and not necessarily level of detail (information). In other words, progressive disclosure is not just about displaying abstract then specific information, but rather about 'ramping up' the user from simple to more complex actions.