101 Things I (should have)

Learned in Interaction Design

School
Shane Morris (@shanemo)
 1
How to draw a line

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick

Design an architectural space to accommodate a
specific program, experience , or intent.
12

For the drawing and description, see

“101 Things I Learned in Architecture
School”
by Matthew Frederick

http://www.frederickdesignstudio.com/Books/101Thi
ngs.html

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick

 1
How to draw a line

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick

I didn’t go to Interaction Design
School
When I started out in this
industry…
 HCI was a science

amazon.com/Psychology-Human-Computer-Interaction-Stuart-Card/dp/0898598591
The 2 disciplines

Technology Psychology
Engineering vs. Design
The 4 disciplines

Technology

Business Behaviour

Design
 Careful anchor placement can
generate an active building interior

For the drawing and description, see

“101 Things I Learned in Architecture
School”
by Matthew Frederick

http://www.frederickdesignstudio.com/Books/101Thi
ngs.html
87

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick

TO WRITE “101 THINGS I
LEARNED IN INTERACTION
DESIGN SCHOOL”…
ixd101.com
Functionality is the enemy of
usability

When you are handed a

functional specification, it
is easy to take it on face
value, and then work hard
to make that functionality
as usable as possible. If
you are really focussed
on usability, then your job
starts with critiquing the
functionality itself.
ixd101.com
 UPDATE – IXD101.COM
Matt Frederick Calls

activity

time
UXA 2009 UXA 2010 WDS
2010
 The level of detail in your mock-ups should
reflect the level of confidence in your design
Mock-ups are prepared as a way
of exploring a particular design
problem, and in order to
communicate your thoughts on a
solution to important
stakeholders (i.e. users, clients
or developers).
In the early stages of design,
mock-ups should communicate
broad concepts and groupings of As you progress towards a final
information or functions. design, mock-ups should be
Keeping the details scant at rendered in increasingly higher
these early stages allows you to fidelity so that the full detail of
progress through iterations your approach is exposed
quickly and keeps your
stakeholders from throwing the
baby out with the bath-water by
quibbling over colours and
 Approach vs. Technique
10
9
8
7
6
5 Approach
4 Technique
3
2
1
0
Matt Shane
The timeless way of…
Play tricks, don't wait for a full-
house
Deciding when your design is mature
enough to put in front of a client is
always difficult. Unfortunately, there is a
natural tendency to err on the side of
holding off for longer than we should.
All other things being equal, you should
expose your design earlier rather than
later - in fact, earlier than you feel
comfortable with.
Even if you have problems with aspects
of the design, it is better to bring your
stakeholders over to your side of the
problem sooner.
To use an analogy from card games;
play your design out in small "tricks"
don't wait for a "full house", lest you be
left with a hand full of great - but now
useless - cards when the project moves
on without you.
TO WRITE “101 THINGS I
LEARNED IN INTERACTION
DESIGN SCHOOL”…
 The getting of wisdom

Data Information Knowledge Wisdom

 The getting of wisdom

Data Information Knowledge Wisdom

• Miller’s • Contextual • Heuristics • Intuition

Number Inquiry • Patterns
• Fitt’s Law • Activity
• Usability Theory
Testing • Information
• Analytics Architecture
 Random unsubstantiated
hypothesis

For the drawing and description, see

“101 Things I Learned in Architecture
School”
by Matthew Frederick

http://www.frederickdesignstudio.com/Books/101Thi
ngs.html
69

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick

Like buildings, applications break
at the joins
It’s the journey between
pages or screens, not the
pages and screens
themselves, that can cause
the most problems for
users.
Plus - problems with the
journey are the most
expensive problems to fix.
Design the journey
between states first, before
designing the states.
Have we achieved wisdom in
interaction design?

NO
Interaction design is hard!

www.vintagecalculators.com
Separation of action and reaction

The greater the

distance between a
user’s action and the
system’s reaction, the
more you need to
emphasise the
relationship between
the action and the
reaction.
Distance can be
measured in space, or
in time.
Interaction design is hard!

www.vintagecalculators.com
Do you know where your
pixels come from?

Powerhouse Museum Collection

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/
collection/database/?irn=28769

Gift of Australian Consolidated Press

under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts
Scheme, 1985
INTERACTION DESIGN IS
HARD…
BUT WE ARE SOFT!
Architects don’t get to usability test

“You can use an eraser on the drafting table

or a sledge hammer on the construction site.“
Frank Lloyd Wright

http://quotesondesign.com/frank-lloyd-wright/
Industrial designers don’t get to A/B test
INTERACTION DESIGN IS
HARD…
BUT WE ARE SOFT!
 Landmarks help us know where
we are going, and where we have
been
When we explore a new
city, landmarks break our
journey into stages. At each
landmark we stop, assess
where we’ve been, reorient
ourselves, and set out again.
Landmarks can help with any
journey. On a web site, arriving
at a page that is markedly
different to others marks the
end of a stage of the
interaction, or the beginning of
a new stage.
Memorable landmarks that
stand out from their surrounds
help us form a mental model of
where we have been, and
TO WRITE “101 THINGS I
LEARNED IN INTERACTION
DESIGN SCHOOL”…
To write “101 Things I Learned in
Interaction Design School”…
…we need greater confidence

http://www.cafepress.com.au/jenkramer.145505508#
 Design with models

For the drawing and description, see

“101 Things I Learned in Architecture
School”
by Matthew Frederick

http://www.frederickdesignstudio.com/Books/101Thi 72
ngs.html

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick

Four new books!
 Roll your drawings for transport or
storage with the image side facing out

For the drawing and description, see

“101 Things I Learned in Architecture
School”
by Matthew Frederick

http://www.frederickdesignstudio.com/Books/101Thi
ngs.html

90
101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick
 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
Matthew Frederick

Thank you
Shane Morris
Automatic Studio
shane@automaticstudio.com.au
@shanemo
Ixd101.com