Interaction Design is a field and approach to designing interactive experiences. These could be in any medium, not only digital media. Interactive experiences, necessarily, require time as an organizing principle (though not exclusively) and Interactive Design is concerned with a user, customer, audience, or participant's experience flow through time. Interactivity should not be confused with animation in which objects may move on a screen; interactivity is concerned with being part of the action of a system or performance and not merely watching the action passively.
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The Place for Standards in Interaction Design (IxD) and UI Design (UID)
'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.
Malouf, David Heller. uiGarden (2006). Design>User Interface>Standards>Interaction Design
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The Post Disciplinary Revolution: Industrial Design and Human Factors—Heal Yourselves
The fault lies with the separation of powers. There are four legs to product development. Four equal legs are required for good product design, all sitting on the foundation of the business case.
Norman, Donald A. JND.org (2000). Design>Human Computer Interaction>Usability
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Have you ever been in a room that felt strangely uncomfortable? Most presenters have, making comments afterwards about a forebodingly long executive table, a sterile design that put a chill in the air or a frenetic disorganized feeling that seemed to bounce around the room during the talk. It's reactions like these that corporate room designers and architects seek to avoid, striving to use technology and interior design to create a professional yet welcoming atmosphere. That quest has opened the door to fresh ideas, including the Chinese art of feng shui.
Regenold, Stephen. Presentations (2002). Design>Human Computer Interaction>Presentations
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A Process for Creating Interactive Instructions 
In an undertaking such as the metamorphosis from printed instructions to on-line instructions, it is important to have a process in place. Relying on the process used by the User Interface Design Department at Thomson Consumer Electronics has helped my department remain focused and on schedule with the project. This paper briefly outlines the Consumer Information Design Department’s process for creating an interactive instruction manual prototype, and might serve as a guideline for others who may also be making the leap from paper to interactivity.
Lesandrini, Jay. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Interaction Design
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We stand poised to dive into the new year. What will 2003 hold for the profession known as 'what we do' and its children, information architecture, usability, interaction design, interface design, and graphic design? We asked our authors to hazard a guess.
Wodtke, Christina. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Interaction Design
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Progressive Disclosure: The Best Interaction Design Technique?
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.
Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2004). Design>Web Design>Personalization>Interaction Design
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Prototyping Beyond the Sunshine Scenario
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.
Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2006). Articles>User Interface>Interaction Design>Methods
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Prototyping Techniques for Interactive Design
Almost all design methodologies call for a prototyping stage, but it can be difficult to decide where to put scarce time and resources for the most impact on the final project. To make a decision, it is important to understand the different types of prototypes and their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, the larger and more complex a project, the more complete each prototype must be, but even with small projects the right prototype can help ensure that you and your clients have a chance to see and test the design before it is too late to make changes. If you do your work right, each step builds on the previous one, and there are no surprises at the end of the project.
Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Usability>Interaction Design
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Quick and Easy Flash Prototypes: Bring Your Wireframes to Life
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.
Andrzejewski, Alexa. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design>Flash
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Read and Display Server-Side XML with JavaScript
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!
Pillai, Premshree. SitePoint (2003). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>Ajax
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Recipe for a Successful Website
Listen up, this one's a no-brainer. Building a successful website is as simple as an Easy-Bake Oven™. Although it's a lot of hard work, it isn't very difficult to understand. The directions are clear. Here's the list of ingredients-and there are only six: Content, Information Design, Performance, Compatibility, Visual Design, and Interaction Design. Each of these ingredients is important and not one can be left out. Would you leave out sugar in a cake recipe? Would you bake bread without yeast? Of course not, but that's what 95% of the websites on the Internet are doing-especially the commercial sites where it is even more important. Most sites serve up pages like half-baked cookies without everything necessary to make them delicious. They usually get the sugar in there but they often forget even more essential elements like flour and water, making their servings hard to swallow and even more difficult to stomach. A successful website might be able to get by with only five of these ingredients-if they are ex
Shedroff, Nathan. nathan.com (1994). Resources>Web Design>Interaction Design
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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.
Soegaard, Mads. Interaction-Design.org. Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Interaction Design
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RIAs: The Technology Is Exciting, but They Really Do Help Users
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), how they work, and how to choose the appropriate RIA technology. Unfortunately, so far, we've had few discussions about the value of RIAs to users and how RIA technologies let us create better, more usable Web applications.
Heller, David. UXmatters (2005). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design
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The Roles of an Interaction Designer
Explains the relation between the interaction designer and the design situation. The design situation includes the users, imagined users, customers, current practice, and competitors. The designer needs to be sensitive to and use precision when acting upon the situation.
Lowgren, Jonas. Usability Professionals Association (2002). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design
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Despite posing well-known risks, websites continue to feature poorly designed scrollbars. Among the ongoing problems that result are frustrated users, accessibility challenges, and missed content.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>Human Computer Interaction>Usability
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Selling Yourself as an Interaction Designer
Interaction design incorporates a lot of skills from other disciplines, such as technical writing and information architecture. This article discusses the unique areas of interaction design with which technical communicators may not be familiar. Expanding your skills in these areas will help you sell yourself as an interaction designer.
Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. and Jennifer B. Square. Intercom (2004). Careers>Freelance>Interaction Design
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Selling Yourself As an Interaction Designer
Rather than focusing on how the site looks, interaction designers are primarily concerned with how an application or Web site functions. They investigate whether the application or Web site performs the intended task in a predictable manner. Interaction design incorporates a lot of skills from other disciplines, such as technical writing and information architecture.
Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. W-edge Design (2004). Careers>Web Design>Interaction Design
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So You Want to be an Interaction Designer
We get a lot of email from students and usability professionals asking how one goes about becoming an interaction designer, and what background one needs to get into the field. What are good interaction design programs? What real-world skills and experience are required? What, exactly, do interaction designers do on a day-to-day basis?
Reimann, Robert. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Careers>Web Design>Interaction Design
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So You Want to Be an Interaction Designer 2006
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.
Saffer, Dan. uiGarden (2007). Careers>Usability>Interaction Design>User Centered Design
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Spell Checking HTML Forms with JavaScript and PHP 
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.
Williams, Rob. Community MX (2006). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>JavaScript
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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.
Horton, William K. III. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Multimedia>Interaction Design
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The Standards Way to Do Dynamic Data
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.
Madden, Sean. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Interaction Design
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Strategies of Influence for Interaction Designers
Unless you have the power to make business and development decisions for your project, some of your energy will be spent influencing those that do. Experienced usability engineers or interaction designers may have limited skill in influence, despite how significantly it can effect their ability to contribute to projects. It’s the smartest and most effective designers that work to understand the human to human interaction within their project teams, as part of their work towards better human to computer interaction.
Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Interaction Design
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Strategies of Influence for Interaction Designers
Unless you have the power to make business and development decisions for your project, some of your energy will be spent influencing those who do. Experienced usability engineers or interaction designers may have limited skill in influence, despite how significantly it can effect their ability to contribute to projects. It’s the smartest and most effective designers that work to understand the human to human interaction within their project teams, as part of their work towards better human to computer interaction.
Berkun, Scott. UIWeb (2001). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>Multimedia
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Teach your smart little menus to do the DHTML dropdown dance without sacrificing semantics, accessibility, or standards compliance or writing clunky code.
Griffiths, Patrick. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>DHTML>Interaction Design
