visual language, form, interaction design

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Visual Language is a message communicated by form.
In this case the iMac is like a toy, it’s approachable and easy to use.
Different from the existing computers at that time that were like office equipment beige boxes.
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A design language is the conscious use of visual languages in a way that helps the company communicate its
messages.
 I’m a
phone, retard!

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Product semantics is a field of thought based on the idea that a product's form should communicate its functions.
but what now?

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what’s the importance of form here?

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how do you give form to it?

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does it look like a phone?

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does it have to look like a phone?

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the look of an object as a carrier of it’s meaning
used to make sense

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form is no longer about what we understand
but about what we can learn

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and form is defined by content

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 the content is what defines the necessity for a
persistent home button, for instance

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On this phone you definitely need a home button because it’s content rich and it’s a way to switch between
applications.
A safe button that will bring you all the way up.
It’s an agreement between industrial designers, interaction designers and software guys.
“To the (limited) extend that interaction design
has concerned itself with issues of form, the
main input so far has come from graphic and
industrial design”.

Jonas Löwgren

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As an example, this is the Helio cellphone just launched in the US. It does messaging, e-mail and it’s also a
phone. As in most companies the solutions come from the traditional approach to design that relies on
mechanisms and engineering.
 the old approach to design: static and
mechanical

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It doesn’t count with the expertise from interaction designers at their best.
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Apple ©

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 the current approach to design is: time based,
dynamic, based on content

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This is a huge interaction design challenge with things like a keyboard that wasn’t tried before. I think what’s
most interesting on Interaction Design is actually coming from software companies like apple. It’s probably
because they can break through the barriers of trying to do everything on hardware but finding the balance
between and challenges of doing hardware and software.
 this doesn’t mean more things on screen but
an approach to form giving
that doesn’t start on the physical aspects
but on content and interaction.

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Form giving doesn’t start anymore on the hardware but the hardware is a consequence of interactions.
notes on form in interaction design

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 meaningful behaviors eye candy

pliability* non responsive UI

consistent information inconsistencies on

architecture interaction

(and it’s definitely not pixel pushing)

*Tightly coupled user action and interface reaction with

hints from the physical world.

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It’s not on the pixel level, it’s abstract. It’s not graphic design on screen and it’s not just about inputs.
 “The feel of interaction, the hints of complexity
unfolding as different options are explored (...);
the sense of understanding and insight growing
over time, the (...) orchestration of the interaction
from conflict to resolution - all of this is part of
the temporal and visuo-tactile properties of using
the digital artifact”.
Jonas Löwgren

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the end

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