Seven Themes Redux
For me, the core of Interaction Design Practice is the “seven themes of good design.” I view these themes as big ideas in human-computer interaction design. Each theme is like a critical lens through which you can examine a design. One can view the design at multiple stages of development, and these critical lenses may communicate to the designer different information through each stage.
Theme 1: Good design is human-centered, not machine-centered. From Norman and Draper: Whenever people use computers, there is necessarily a zone of mutual accommodation. This defines our area of interest. People are so adaptable that they are capable of shouldering the entire burden of accommodation to a piece of software. But skillful designers make large parts of this burden vanish by adapting the software to its users. To understand successful design requires an understanding of the technology, the person, and their mutual interaction
User-centeredness is the core of HCI. We’re not designing as much for ourselves as we are for other people, the “end-users.” It’s easy to say this, but very difficult to pull off. Why? It’s difficult to know what users want and what they need. And even if they could tell us directly what they need, often users don’t know what they need (it may not have been invented yet, among other reasons).
I like to look for the user’s “pain points”–the aspect of the person’s life or work that is most difficult and where change would be most welcomed. Give the user a “magic wand” and ask them to imagine what they’d like to change about their situation, process, or their life. Their answer is often a big clue as to what you need to design.
Also, there’s the issue of designing for an individual versus designing for a group or a large population. It’s very difficult to accommodate the needs of all users. And when we overlay factors of culture, politics, ethics, and sustainability, we have entered a complex world of needs and considerations. Are the users the true (or only) stakeholders?
The last point is that humans are very good at accommodating “the machine.” People can adjust to and learn almost anything. They tend to blame themselves when technology goes wrong rather than more appropriately blaming the designers and developers. (Contrast this with human-human relationships whereby people tend to blame each other when things go wrong rather than take personal responsibility.) Most software developers have not been trained in human-centered thinking.
Theme 2: Good design employs the computer as a transparent medium. While the first theme focuses on users, this theme focuses on uses. The uses should flow through the machine and software without either getting in the way. If the user is focusing on how the machine or software works, then the user is not focusing on the task at hand (e.g., writing or drawing or performing financial analyses). There are great examples of transparency in other media: when you read a wonderful book, you forget about the book’s physical structure—its form, texture, layout, font, or that you are turning pages. You are absorbed instead in the story. The same thing happens in the movie theater if you are watching a great film; you forget about the seats, the smell of popcorn, or the green glow of the EXIT sign. The movie pulls you in. Good design should do this too.
Theme 3: Good design creates computer imaginative interactions. Computer imaginative software exploits the strengths of the medium for particular purposes (e.g., instruction, productivity, organization, entertainment). This theme is difficult to understand but it may be the most important for designers. Computer imagination implies that we don’t want to imitate other media, copying one medium onto another. That usually concludes in a result that is worse than the original. For example: putting a book online has a few advantages (e.g., searching, adjustment of font size, compactness), but in general, it doesn’t improve the book. Web sites, on the other hand, were a break from the linear, page-turning book; sites allow links–from one place to another. We take it for granted today, but not too long ago, hypertext (as we used to call it) was a new idea.
Amazon.com is a good example of computer imagination. It takes advantage of data mining and large-scale databases to keep track of your buying history and how that compares to others with similar interests. You certainly wouldn’t enter Borders and have someone welcome you with four book suggestions that fit your profile or the profile of others with similar interests.
Computer Imagination = Exploiting the medium + for some purpose (e.g., education, productivity, entertainment, information, etc.)
Strong Computer Imagination = Exploiting the medium + for some purpose + that couldn’t be done easily in any other medium
Super Computer Imagination (or the “killer” application or tool) = Exploiting the medium + for some purpose + that couldn’t be done easily in any other medium + and it responds to people’s needs that they didn’t even realize they had. In other words, once they “see” it, they want it; it has transformative value. An example of this is the invention of the spreadsheet. It clearly took advantage of the computer medium; it made calculations more efficient and improved productivity; it was something you couldn’t do easily in other ways without a lot of tedious work; and once people “got it” they realized it would transform the way people do business. It created a new industry of business projections and analysis. It was transformative.
Computer imagination is not easy to design, but good design can create strong computer imagination. Super computer imagination is rare.
Theme 4: Good design provides for ease of learning. We will borrow concepts from other design arenas (e.g., instructional design, architectural design, music and cooking) to lend new points of view to human-computer interaction design.
It’s accessible. It’s easy to learn. It is this way because it takes advantage of certain principles. For example, if it follows certain norms or standards, then users know what to expect. If it is consistent, then users can predict what will happen next. Most often you want to follow these norms; but sometimes it is appropriate to break the norm. But you do this for a good reason. It must “take us to a new place” that is needed or that we will discover we desire.
We examine other design areas: architecture (how form/ function/construction) are used to create spaces in which we live, work, and have fun. Take the entryways of building; these entries lead to certain expectations. Some are carefully designed, like the path of a Japanese garden. Sometimes we break the norm to create surprise or suspense, but this is not done in a frivolous way; it is done for a reason.
Whether it be the choreography of dance or the creation of a magnificent meal, we see design parallels (and exceptions). While the analogies are not perfect, we can learn from them and gain insights into the design process.
Theme 5: Good design entails continual redesign. First drafts almost never work. Great designs come from many redesigns. Thinking on paper and using powerful mockup and sketching tools are important aids. Redesign is a successive approximation to an unobtainable ideal. Rarely can a designer create a perfect solution the first time through. We’re not all like Mozart! Good design comes from many iterations, many revisions. The problem is that we think this doesn’t happen because we only see the finished product. For the most part, we don’t have access to all of the early versions and the revisions. If we saw them, then we’d be amazed at how many changes get made and for what reasons. Good design is a lot of work, and hopefully with each version there is improvement towards a theoretically unobtainable goal.
Theme 6: Good design is more craft than art. With a craft you acquire a set of rules; you apply them; you extend them. This is not art. Art de-emphasizes rules; art is more of an expression for self. We also must recognize that we’re not the tirst ones addressing these problems; there have been many who have gone before us. There’s an entire craft, including certain traditions which we must learn. Good designers learn to stand on the shoulders of giants–other designers, other craftsmen/women.
Theme 7: Good design always involves tradeoffs. There is no “best” solution to any design problem; there are only tradeoffs (for example, trading off ease of use for power). No design is perfect. And you’re never done with a design. Ultimately you stop designing when you either run out of funding or your time is up! Sometimes, but not always, you have a chance to return to your work and revise it further. Tradeoffs mean that it’s almost impossible to optimize everything! Often you need to emphasize one variable over another. Yet, computer imaginative design might address the supposed impasse; the compromise may be less than you think.
