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{"id":5402,"date":"2015-02-13T00:40:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T22:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/?p=5402"},"modified":"2016-01-12T21:08:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T19:08:57","slug":"what-is-interaction-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/what-is-interaction-design\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Interaction Design"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 align=\"center\">What is Interaction Design<\/h2>\n<h3 align=\"center\">and What Does It Mean to Information Designers?<\/h3>\n<h4 align=\"center\">Part 1 of 2<\/h4>\n<p align=\"center\">by Craig Marion<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In 1988, Alexander Associates sponsored INtertainment, the first annual conference bringing together people from all corners of the interactive entertainment business. People came from such diverse industries as personal computers, video games, broadcast and cable television, optical media, museums, and amusement parks. Over the course of the two days, a debate about the meaning of the word \u201cinteractive\u201d raged through every session, disrupting carefully planned panels and presentations. People seemed to regard \u201cinteractivity\u201d as the unique cultural discovery of the electronic age, and they demanded a coherent definition. Several speakers tried to oblige, but no one succeeded.\u201d (Laurel, 1992, p. 20)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I wasn\u2019t aware of this controversy when I researched and launched my Web site, the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chesco.com\/%7Ecmarion\">Software Design Smorgasbord<\/a>, in the spring of 1997. I created my site to help me track developments in user interface design from a number of perspectives that arose independently and, at the time, weren\u2019t communicating very well. As I scoured the Web each month for information to keep my site current, I found myself continually encountering a term I was unfamiliar with: \u201cinteraction design.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For example, Cooper Software Design \u2014 the consultancy built by Alan Cooper, the \u201cfather of Visual Basic\u201d and one of the most penetrating critics of user interfaces \u2014 changed its name to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chesco.com\/%7Ecmarion\/PCD\/www.cooper.com\">Cooper Interaction Design<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ida.liu.se\/labs\/aslab\/people\/miker\/\">Mikael Ericsson<\/a>, an instructor at Link\u00f6ping University in Sweden and editor of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ida.liu.se\/labs\/aslab\/groups\/um\/hci\/\">one of the most popular Web sites on user interface design<\/a>, began developing and teaching a master\u2019s program in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ida.liu.se\/%7Eid\/\">interaction design<\/a>. And the growing number of companies that developed Web sites for others often listed \u201cinteraction designers\u201d among their staff, and were actively recruiting them.<\/p>\n<p>I became curious. Where did the term\u00a0<em>interaction design<\/em>\u00a0come from? What exactly does it mean? And what do the people who call themselves interaction designers actually do?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like to share some of what I discovered as I explored these questions. And I\u2019d also like to discuss some implications of what I found for information design. Looking at information in terms of interactivity, it turns out, provides the basis for an entire typology for examining user assistance (which I\u2019ll present in Part 2 of this article) and envisioning new possibilities.<\/p>\n<h3>The Term Comes from Human-Computer Interaction<\/h3>\n<p>It took computer science a long time to transcend its fixation on hardware and software and begin to study usability issues systematically. It wasn\u2019t until the late Eighties that the ACM and the IEEE \u2014 the two largest and most influential computer science organizations \u2014 recommended including user interface design in their official computer science curriculum (Denning et al., 1989). Meanwhile, scientists from other disciplines had been examining the effects using computers had on people. Cognitive psychologists studied the impacts on perception, memory, learning, and problem solving, and human factors specialists examined them on human physiology.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhere in all this \u2014 I couldn\u2019t locate a clear point of origin \u2014 a field called \u201chuman-computer interaction\u201d arose. Human-computer interaction (or, sometimes, computer-human interaction \u2014 the terms are used interchangeably) is the area of computer science that examines user interfaces and their use. The field is generally referred to by its acronyms: HCI and CHI.<\/p>\n<p>Textbooks emerged. In 1986, Ben Schneiderman\u2019s\u00a0<em>Designing the User Interface<\/em>\u00a0(3rd edition, 1997) appeared. It was followed by two separate volumes, each called\u00a0<em>Human Computer Interaction,<\/em>\u00a0by Dix et al. in 1992 (2nd edition, 1998) and Preece et al. in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>This definition of interaction from Dix et al. is representative of these texts, and the field:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By interaction we mean any communication between a user and computer, be it direct or indirect. Direct interaction involves a dialog with feedback and control throughout the performance of the task. Indirect interaction may involve background or batch processing. The important thing is that the user is interacting with the computer in order to accomplish something. (Dix et al., 1998, p. 3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the context of the mice and keyboards, then, it seems fairly clear that interaction refers to what happens on your display when you click and type. Interaction design, presumably, means envisioning and creating some kind of map of how this should be done in a specific application.<\/p>\n<p>So why all the controversy? Don\u2019t all programmers take this into account as a matter of course when they create interfaces? Well yes, they do. But that doesn\u2019t mean they do it well. As Theodor Holm Nelson wrote around the time of the first INtertainment conference:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Learning to program has no more to do with designing interactive software than learning to touch-type has to do with writing poetry. The design of interactivity is scarcely taught in programming school. What we need in software is what people are taught in film school, at least to whatever degree it can be taught. Designing for the little screen on the desktop has the most in common with designing for the Big Screen. (Laurel, 1990, p. 243)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>What Does Designing Interaction Mean?<\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s jump ahead for a moment and look at the meaning of designing interaction in Web design. It\u2019s often called \u201cinteractivity\u201d rather than \u201cinteraction\u201d in this context. The two terms are used virtually synonymously: \u201cinteraction designers\u201d commonly \u201cdesign interactivity.\u201d We\u2019ll return to general software development in the next section.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Integrating interactivity into your Web site means starting with a solid understanding of what the components of interactivity are. But to ask what interactivity is seems a little thick \u2014 I mean, it\u2019s obvious. Isn\u2019t it? (Szeto et al., 1997, p. 78.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When I read this I thought of St. Augustine\u2019s observation, in the\u00a0<em>Confessions<\/em>, that when no one asks him what time is, he knows, but when someone asks him, he doesn\u2019t know anymore. Perhaps interactivity is one of those words \u2014 like time and love and truth \u2014 that people use easily enough but, when pressed, can\u2019t define.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy enough to identify what Szeto et al. call \u201cthe components of interactivity.\u201d They\u2019re created with tools such as Macromedia Director and 3D Studio Max, or sometimes just HTML. But creating these components doesn\u2019t necessarily make a successfully interactive Web site \u2014 any more than typing words and calling it poetry necessarily makes good poetry.<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"10\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#fffacd\" width=\"25%\">\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>These design companies discuss interaction design as creating engaging experience on their sites:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Vivid Studios explains that their mission is \u201cTo produce meaningful online experiences through intuitively designed, solidly engineered spaces.\u201d Their Processes + Practices are the most clearly developed of any of the firms I encountered. For an interactive experience based on the quality of information, take their Business Tour or Pleasure Tour. And don\u2019t miss their interactive positioning statement. (Vivid Studios is no longer in existence; links were removed \u2013 CM 7\/01)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monkey.com\/\">MONKEYMedia<\/a>\u00a0calls itself \u201cthe interface design studio specializing in interaction as a communications medium.\u201d The Ultra Sensory version of their site is a great example of the components of interactivity used well. The most accessible path to their discussions of what goes into interactivity, though, is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.monkey.com\/TX1\/reference\/reference.htm\">this text only reference section<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.albenfaris.com\/\">Alben+Faris<\/a>\u00a0is \u201ca design firm that specializes in quality interactive experiences.\u201d \u201cWe think the quality of your experiences matters a lot.\u201d This site doesn\u2019t discuss methodology the way Vivid and MONKEYMedia do, but they say a good bit about interaction design as the design of experience under\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.albenfaris.com\/aboutus\/aboutus.html\">About us<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.albenfaris.com\/news\/news.html\">News<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.albenfaris.com\/ourexperience\/ourexperience.html\">Our experience<\/a>.<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"75%\">Terry R. Schussler, in a presentation called\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gmatter.com\/presentations\/macworld98interactiveweb\/MacWorldSF98.html\">Building Interactivity Into Your Website<\/a>\u00a0at the Mac World San Francisco 98 conference, explained that interaction is not animation. It\u2019s not audio. It\u2019s not video. It\u2019s \u201cuser control and dynamic experience.\u201d\u201cDynamic experience.\u201d Sounds like another one of those slippery words. But that\u2019s exactly the type of language used by interaction designers to describe what they do \u2014 in the context of Web design, at least. Spend some time at the sites of the Web design firms in the sidebar. They all discuss interaction design as designing appealing user experiences.Jennifer Fleming, in an exploration of how to build successful navigation into a Web site, comes to this recognition pointedly:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rather than designing sidebars and menus, you\u2019re designing spaces and interactions. In short, you\u2019re crafting the user experience. . . . In the graphical environment of the Web, interface design has to do with constructing visual meaning. The happy marriage of architecture and interface \u2014 of logical structure and visual meaning \u2014 creates a cohesive user experience. (Fleming, 1998, p. 11, p. 63)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The most provocative exponent of this perspective that I\u2019ve come upon, though, has been Nathan Shedroff, creative director of Vivid Studios and one of the most acclaimed Web designers working today.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Interactivity isn\u2019t about non-linear navigation or moving animations on the screen. It\u2019s about what people can do on the site, what they can participate in, what the site does to address their needs, interests, goals, and abilities.\u201d (quoted in Fleming, 1998, p. 66)<\/p>\n<p>Interaction design is the art of effectively creating interesting and compelling experiences for others. (Shedroff, 1999)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>In a presentation called\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/interpres\/\">What is Interactivity Anyway<\/a>, Nathan presents a continuum of interactivity, from passive to interactive, and examines a wide variety of media and activities \u2014 from books to television to lectures to sports \u2014 in terms of feedback, control, creativity, productivity, communications, and adaptivity. These elements are discussed throughout his writings, from the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/unified\/\">Unified Field Theory<\/a>\u00a0to his\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/recipe\/\">Recipe for a Successful Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"10\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#f0fff0\" width=\"25%\">\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Nathan Shedroff\u2019s Web resources on interactivity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nathan has provided more good Web material on interactivity than any other single source I\u2019ve come across. His most comprehensive document is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/unified\/\">Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design<\/a>, but I wouldn\u2019t start there. Rather, I\u2019d read\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/interview.html\">Drue Miller\u2019s interview with him<\/a>\u00a0or explore his presentation\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/interpres\/\">What is Interactivity Anyway<\/a>. For a focus on methodology,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/process.html\">The Interactive Process<\/a>\u00a0is excellent. So is his\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/thoughts\/resources.html\">Interaction and Information Design Resources<\/a>. Most interesting of all, however, is his\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/\">personal Web site<\/a>. It begins \u201cWelcome to my world . . .\u201d And he means it.<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">Nathan is a Big Picture thinker. He\u2019s clear that interactivity is anything but a unique cultural discovery of the electronic age. At one point, in response to a request for good examples of interactivity on the Internet, his first response is that there aren\u2019t any. The example of interactivity he returns to repeatedly is storytelling. A good storyteller \u2014 capturing her audience, engaging her listeners \u2014 is creating an interactive experience.Interactivity is about genuine human engagement. That\u2019s the measure of successfully \u201cinteractive\u201d software. And from this Nathan draws a stark observation:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This means that the competition for interactive media products is as big as all of human experience. In other words, your competitors for that CD-ROM on tropical fish are not other tropical fish CD-ROMs or even laserdiscs, but television documentaries, narrative and reference books, aquariums, scuba diving, travel, etc. If the experience you create is not a compelling one (whether justified by the bounds of the technology or not), you will never find a large audience. (Shedroff, 1994)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is a very important point, and one that was lost on all the Web designers who added interactive components to their site without fully considering the overall effect.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Two questions arise, though, when we consider interaction design as the creation of compelling experiences. The first is: Where is it appropriate? There\u2019s no obvious correlation between having fun on a site or with a piece of software and achieving business goals such as knowledge acquisition or high productivity. (Did anyone count, in the early days of Windows, how many companies forbade their employees from playing Solitaire?) User enjoyment may be a positive or negative factor when performance metrics are what counts.<\/p>\n<p>The second is: Is this an expansion of the classic meaning of interaction, or a new meaning altogether? Take another look at the Dix et al. definition of direct interaction (the kind we\u2019re concerned with here) cited earlier:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Direct interaction involves a dialog with feedback and control throughout the performance of the task.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Okay. Then what about components like animated GIFs and movie clips when they\u2019re not initiated or controlled by users? What about the fact that \u201cdesigning for the Big Screen\u201d may have nothing to do with dialog, feedback, and control? If interaction design is about the creation of compelling experiences, feedback and control may be tools in a designer\u2019s toolbox, but they\u2019re not always components of whatever\u2019s being designed. Devices and approaches that don\u2019t use them may contribute to the user experience, too.<\/p>\n<p>The issue becomes even more complicated. Many designers create \u201cexperience modules\u201d (for lack of a better term) that a user can choose to execute. But that\u2019s the extent of the user\u2019s control. Once launched, these modules present pre-packaged experiences that are designed, in effect, to control the user. Other designers give a user the opportunity to explore or do something with a site, or piece of software, in ways that its creators may never have considered. The user really does control the experience. Both groups of designers call what they do \u201cinteraction design.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like many important words, then, \u201cinteractivity\u201d and \u201cinteraction design\u201d turn out to have multiple meanings. Maybe that\u2019s what generated the controversy at the first INtertainment conference. But we don\u2019t want to go too far afield here. The \u201ccomponents of interactivity\u201d are generally regarded as key elements in successfully interactive software and Web sites. Interaction design may not reduce to them, but it does entail their use. And so it seems to follow that we can describe interaction designers as those who use certain toolboxes and techniques.<\/p>\n<p>Or so it would seem. But, particularly in larger firms, this isn\u2019t the case at all.<\/p>\n<h3>What Do Interaction Designers Actually Do?<\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s return again to the broader domain of software development. In 1993, Deborah Hix and H. Rex Hartson from Virginia Tech published an influential volume called<em>\u00a0Developing User Interfaces<\/em>. In it, they argued that \u201cuser interface development must be an integral part of the overall software engineering process, not an add-on or afterthought\u201d (p. vii), and the book lays out the process of how this was done at the time by successful companies such as Apple and Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>They call the key player the \u201cuser interaction developer.\u201d This is, I believe, effectively the same person as the \u201cinteraction designer\u201d in the Web world. In more traditional software development, this person is responsible<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>to develop the content, behavior, and appearance of the interaction design. People in this role are directly responsible for ensuring usability, including user performance and satisfaction. They are concerned with critical design issues such as functionality, sequencing, content, and information access, as well as such details as what menus should look like, how forms should be formatted, whether to use a mouse or trackball, and how to ensure consistency across an interface. A major part of the developer\u2019s job is also concerned with setting measurable usability specifications, evaluating interaction designs with users, and redesigning based on analysis of users\u2019 evaluations of an interface. (Hartson and Hix, 1993, p. 9)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"10\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#f0ffff\" width=\"25%\">\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>Another way to understand what interaction designers do is to look at what they\u2019ve actually done.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Look at the examples provided by Vivid Studios ,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.monkey.com\/FR4\/main.htm\">MONKEYMedia<\/a>\u00a0(click Portfolio), and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.albenfaris.com\/ourexperience\/ourexperience.html\">Alben+Faris<\/a>.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.user.com\/portfolio.htm,\">Interaction Design<\/a>\u00a0has an interesting portfolio, too, as does\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cognetics.com\/projects\/index.html\">Cognetics Corporation<\/a>. Many individuals also provide Web pages with samples of their work.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nathan.com\/me.html\">Nathan Shedroff\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0is almost daunting. You can view portfolios by<a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodgestreet.com\/portfolio.html\">Jodi Forlizzi<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cognetics.com\/team\/wq.html\">Whitney Quesenbery<\/a>\u00a0as well.<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">What struck me upon first reading their book (in 1996) was not only that none of the software companies I was familiar had such a position. It was that none of the software developers I discussed this with had ever heard of such a position. Further investigation showed me that, at the leading companies, there were indeed people carrying out these roles under various titles. Michael Wiklund discussed a number of them in\u00a0<em>Usability in Practice<\/em>\u00a0(1994). But in most software shops, the developers still did the <span class=\"skimlinks-unlinked\">design.Yet<\/span> this was being challenged. Alan Cooper put it well:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is a conflict of interest in the world of software development because the people who build it are also the people who design it. If carpenters designed houses, they would certainly be easier or more interesting to build, but not necessarily better to live in. The architect, besides being trained in the art of what works and what doesn\u2019t, is an advocate for the client, for the user. An equivalent role in the world of software has not fully developed yet, although several groups are eyeing it jealously.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, we will see a bifurcation in the industry: Designers will design the software and engineers will build it. This is currently considered a luxury by those development shops that haven\u2019t realized the fiscal and marketing advantages that come with professional software design. (Cooper, 1995, p. 23, 2f.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>What do the designers do? Take a look at the position posting for Interaction Designer at Cooper Interaction Design. The position is described vividly:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You can fully imagine the experience of users of the product you design, and to put yourself in their shoes. You have an aggressive and questing intellect and you can defend your position with poise. You love collaborating with others to get at the right answer; you know the right answer when you see it-whether you came up with it or your teammate did-and you are able to improve upon it. You enjoy articulating complex design ideas to ensure effective meetings with staff and clients. You can work hard and work smart. You are self-motivated and enjoy being the master of your own process. Your personality inspires others to excel. (Cooper Interaction Design, 1999)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Vivid Studios is organized somewhat differently. While they have interaction designers on their staff, they also have position postings (at this writing, anyway) for both a \u201cSenior Information\/Interaction Designer\u201d and a \u201cCreative Lead, Info Arch and Interaction Design.\u201d The Information\/Interaction Designer (\u201cID\u201d)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>works closely with Visual Designers and Writers on a project team to create a front-end that enables a positive user experience. The ID is responsible for the design of the information structure, workflow, navigation, and the interfaces of all interactive elements of a site (forms, applets, and so forth). (Vivid Studios, 1999)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There\u2019s commonality here. An interaction designer designs. But he or she may have other responsibilities, such as usability engineering (which is a better label for most of the activities in the Hix and Hartson model than interaction design) or information design. And, particularly in smaller firms, the interaction designer may both design and build the software \u2014 including implementing the \u201ccomponents of interactivity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This really is a new, evolving area. Look at the staffs of companies that do this work and their methodologies. There\u2019s no consensus on job titles or how work is configured among teams. Staffing seems to evolve as the individuals and companies involved find and express their strengths, develop methodologies, and envision the skill sets they need to bring in-house to grow.<\/p>\n<h3>What Does All This Have to Do with Information Design?<\/h3>\n<p>In the preceding sections I\u2019ve tried to bring some clarity to an ambiguous new phenomenon: interaction design and those involved with it. In some companies, such as Vivid Studios, the overlap between interaction design and information design has been recognized, but few companies tie the two together as closely as Vivid. The term interaction design is used to cover a range of meanings and overlaps with other areas as well.<\/p>\n<p>But let\u2019s not let these ambiguities obscure what\u2019s really going on here. It\u2019s no accident that interaction design and interaction designers are becoming visible and in demand. New possibilities of what software can be and do have arisen, and they need to be mastered and managed.<\/p>\n<p>Have you noticed? The face of software is changing. It\u2019s often more browser-like and increasingly offers portals to the Web. Sometimes its displays are conditional on who the user is and what the user has done. Sometimes its components no longer stand still; they move, and entire displays can shift shape.<\/p>\n<p>The dimension of motion and visual change is probably the most dramatic advance. Up until very recently, displays were essentially screens (or Windows). They may have been clickable, and they may have changed in other ways, but basically they had fixed forms. No more. With developments like dynamic HTML, software no longer has to stand still.<\/p>\n<p>From an information design standpoint, the new reality, driven by new technological options, is that information can be blended and woven into software in ways that were barely imaginable just a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The question this raises for information design is \u201cWhat guidance can be provided?\u201d What tools and techniques are appropriate for different kinds of interactive assistance, and why? How can positioning information within this new software, using new possibilities, contribute to enhancing the user experience? And how can information best be displayed within this software in ways that contribute to, in Nathan\u2019s phrase, users\u2019 \u201cneeds, interests, goals, and abilities\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want to lose sight of the obvious answer. Good, clear, well-organized writing and effective graphical information have value. They contribute greatly to the user experience. But this is only part of the answer.<\/p>\n<p>The new reality \u2014 the one shaped by interaction designers \u2014 tells us that good writing and graphics need to be positioned appropriately. When they\u2019re relegated to an unused help system, they don\u2019t really help anybody. In software real estate \u2014 just as in any other \u2014 location matters.<\/p>\n<p>And so does interactivity. The new reality offers more ways to present information than ever before. In Part 2 of this article, under the topic \u201cMake Way for Interactive Assistance,\u201d I\u2019ll present a typology for discussing them.<\/p>\n<p>Reference:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mysite.verizon.net\/resnx4g7\/PCD\/WhatIsInteractionDesign.html\">http:\/\/mysite.verizon.net\/resnx4g7\/PCD\/WhatIsInteractionDesign.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Interaction Design and What Does It Mean to Information Designers? Part 1 of 2 by Craig Marion In 1988, Alexander Associates sponsored INtertainment, the first annual conference bringing together people from all corners of the interactive entertainment business. People came from such diverse industries as personal computers, video games, broadcast and cable television, optical media, museums, and amusement parks. Over the course of the two days, a debate about the meaning of the word \u201cinteractive\u201d raged through every session, disrupting carefully planned panels and presentations. People seemed to regard \u201cinteractivity\u201d as the unique cultural discovery of the electronic age, and they demanded a coherent definition. Several speakers tried to oblige, but no one succeeded.\u201d (Laurel, 1992, p. 20) I wasn\u2019t aware of this controversy when I researched and launched my Web site, the\u00a0Software Design Smorgasbord, in the spring of 1997. I created my site to help me track [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[579],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interaction-design"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pzkzw-1p8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5402"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5404,"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402\/revisions\/5404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xylem.aegean.gr\/~modestos\/mo.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}