People, Activities, Contexts, Technologies

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Labs for this week (I'm still trying to secure a
fourth lab).Creative, Multimedia, Games Tech
and Digital Media Students  AS431 on THURSDAY
morning at 9 a.m.Computing and all other
studentsStudents with Surnames starting A-K to
room AS116 _at_ 12 on WEDNESDAYS (directly after the
lectures)Students with Surnames starting L-P to
room AS121 _at_ 12 on WEDNESDAYS (directly after the
lectures)Students with Surnames starting R-X to
room AS125 _at_ 12 on WEDNESDAYS (directly after the
lectures)
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Part of an occasional series of lecture plugins..

be innovative be creative and imaginative be
able to think independently and creatively
How?
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Think about your own creativity are you an ant?

• lots of small steps
• incremental
• evolutionary

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Or are you a flea

• great leaps
• unguided
• revolutionary

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imagination and play

• what if thinking
• imagination looking ahead
• the foundation of science and technology

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A creativity starterTry some bad ideas

• deliberately silly/bad ideas
• e.g. a glass hammer
• analyse it
• whats good, whats bad
• assume it is a good idea
• How would you sell the idea

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Bad Ideas Generator
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why try bad ideas?

• It reduce personal commitment (so you dont get
  defensive about your idea)
• Its a fun group exercise
• It helps to to train critical thought
• It can inspire good ideas!

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Designing Interactive Systems

• A fusion of skills

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We are Interactive Systems Designers

• Our goal is to design interactive systems that
  are enjoyable to use, that do useful things and
  that enhance the lives of the people that use
  them.
• We want our interactive systems to be accessible,
  usable and engaging.
• In order to achieve this we believe that the
  design of such systems should be human-centred.
• That is, designers need to put people rather than
  technology at the centre of their design process.

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In the past

• Unfortunately the design of computer systems and
  products in the past has not always had a good
  record of considering the people who use them.
• Many systems have been designed by programmers
  who use computers every working day.
• Many designers are young males.
• Many designers have been playing computer games
  for years.
• This means that they forget just how difficult
  and obscure some of their designs can be to
  people who have not had these experiences.

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Picture Another overloaded interface
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Picture of an overloaded interface
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In the past

• Before the immediacy of the Web and e-commerce,
  usability problems were only discovered after
  purchase.
• If you bought a nice looking CD player and
  brought it home only to find it was difficult to
  use, you could not take it back!
• The shop would say that it delivers its
  functions, all you had to do was to learn how to
  operate it properly.

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.now

• On the Web, customers look at usability first.
• If the system is hard to use, or if they do not
  understand it, they will go somewhere else to
  make their purchase.
• People are learning that systems do not have to
  be hard to use and are becoming more critical
  about the design of other products, such as their
  CD players, too.

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Interactive systems

• are many and various!
• Windows Vista or Mac OSX are functional operating
  system - huge pieces of software which have new,
  modern interfaces
• The iPod is an information appliance designed and
  optimized for a limited set of functions
• Some interactive systems are primarily artistic
  by nature
• http//uk.youtube.com/watch?vLhLejlWS_ug
• Some interactive systems are concerned with
  helping people cooperate and create communities

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So what is interactive systems design about?

• Design - how to do it
• Technologies - what can technology do? What
  content does something have?
• People - who will use it, who will be affected by
  it?
• Activities and contexts - what will people have
  to do in what circumstances?

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Design
What is design?Its where you stand with a foot
in two worlds the world of technology and the
world of people and human purposesand you try to
bring the two together (Mitch Kapor in T.
Winograd Bringing design to Software (1996), p.1)
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Design is

• The creative process of specifying something new
• And
• The representations that are produced along the
  way
• Such as
• Site maps, mood-boards, storyboards, blueprints,
  sketches, etc.

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Picture interface design mood-board
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Picture interface design storyboard
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Design

• Design typically involves much iteration
  (cyclical development)
• Both the problem (how can we be able to do x)
• and the solution evolve during design
• (hey! Weve invented a cool tool the mobile
  phone, but it can do so much more e.g. SMS)

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Design. A spectrum of activities

• Engineering design - using scientific principles
• Architect designs buildings, urban planner
  designs roads, etc.
• Artistic - creative design where imagination is
  key
• Design as craft design is a conversation with
  materials (Donald Schön)
• E.g. pottery designer works with clay, clothes
  designer works with fabrics, interior designer
  works with furniture, paints, lighting, etc.

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Design as craft

• Our materials are interactive systems we work
  within and shape this medium
• Such as cameras, phones, web sites, DVDs,
  computer applications any device or system that
  is interactive
• interactive systems deal with the transmission,
  display, storage or transformation of information
  that people can perceive and that respond to
  peoples actions
• interactive systems include such things as
  phones, web sites and washing machine controllers
  
• and increasingly clothes, jewellery and buildings!

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Designing interactive systems

• . is more than just designing the user interface
  . is more than designing the input, output and
  content
• It is about designing the whole human-computer
  interaction
• It is about designing the human-human interaction
  that is often enabled through devices
• It is about designing whole environments of
  interlinked devices and objects
• Think of designing museum exhibits, or an
  amusement park
• Or an airport, a hotel lobby or a shopping mall

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Being Human-Centred

• We take a human-centred approach to designing
  interactive systems. That means
• thinking about what people want to do rather than
  just what the technology can do
• designing new ways to connect people with people
• involving people in the design process
• designing for diversity