Module 2: Design Principles

• Interaction design: about creating interventions in often complex situations using technology of many kinds
• Focus on Certain Things:

  • Goals
  • Constraints
  • Tradeoff
• Design involves:

  • achieving goals within constraints and trade-off
  • understanding the raw materials: computer & human
  • accepting limitations of humans & of design
• Scenarios are rich design stories, which can be used & reused throughout design.
• Scenarios:

  • help us see what users will want to do
  • gives a step-by-step walkthrough of users' interactions; including what they see, do, and are thinking
• Users need to find their way around a system, which involves:

  • helping users know where they are, where they have been and what they can do next
  • creating overall structures that are easy to understand & fit the users' needs
  • designing comprehensible screens & control panels
• Golden Rule of Design:

  • "Understand your materials."