Interaction Design: An Introduction

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But you don't want to design them to enable spammers to easily send out tens of thousands of messages. Not that spammers use email clients, but you get the idea.

Danzico: In your book, you build a nice definition of interaction design by saying, "It's about making connections between people through these products, not connecting to the product itself." What do you mean by "making connections between people?"

Saffer: Traditional industrial design is about making a connection to an artifact: This is a great chair. Traditional communication design is about making a connection to information: Yes, I will attend the event this poster is advertising. Human-Computer Interaction is about connecting with the computer: I enjoy using my Mac OS X operating system. But interaction design, although it draws on all these fields (and many more), is subtly different in its purpose: to connect people via our products and services: I know you better because I read your blog.

As I think about it, an interaction is really a communication. It can either be one-to-one, like a telephone call. It can be one to many, like a podcast or a blog post. Or it can be many-to-many, like a giant system like the stock market. All these things are surrounded by tools that make the communication possible, and those tools, for the best experience, should be designed.

Danzico: Is good interaction design visible? In other words, is the success (or failure) of interaction design something we talk about and point to? How can we recognize good interaction design?

Saffer: The visible part of interaction design is the interface, which is usually the controls for manipulating the features and functionality that make up the interaction design. Interface design is only the physical expression of interaction design. The interaction design part of a product or service is usually invisible. However, it can be felt. The iPod would just be a beautiful object if it also didn't work well. And certainly the failure of interaction design can cause anger, frustration, lost time, and, in the worst case scenarios, injury and death.

In the book, I list the characteristics of good interaction design, things like trustworthy, appropriate, and smart. Things that are hard to visualize, although there are certainly visual cues for these things. And users certainly notice, usually unconsciously, both their absence and their inclusion. My mobile phone, for instance, is a beautiful piece of industrial design. But the interaction design is terrible. I simply can't use it easily and well to make phone calls and do all the other things a mobile phone does these days. It annoys me and causes me angst and embarrassment. It is the opposite of another trait I mention: clever. It doesn't anticipate any of my needs and tailor itself to help me accomplish them.

Danzico: Do interaction designers need to be good graphic designers? How much cross-over is there between the visual and the functional?

Saffer: No, although it certainly helps, as it would to be a good industrial designer. On small teams, often the visual designer and the interaction designer will be the same person. And even when each role is played by a different person, there is a constant back and forth. I was recently on a project where my interaction design called for four buttons on an application's interface. The visual designer came back to me and said, "Due to X, Y, and Z, I've only got room for two buttons." So then I had to tailor my design to fit his. And of course, since my work was done first, he had already had to tailor his design to work with mine.

What visual and interaction designers have to collaborate most on are the affordances of the interface: those things that indicate how the product could be used. The visual cues users rely on to understand what they can do with a product: push a button, turn a dial, and so on.