Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Edition

11

Design, prototyping, and construction

1. 11.1 Introduction
2. 11.2 Prototyping and construction
3. 11.3 Conceptual design: moving from requirements to first design
4. 11.4 Physical design: getting concrete
5. 11.5 Using scenarios in design
6. 11.6 Using prototypes in design
7. 11.7 Tool support

11.1 Introduction

Design activities begin once some requirements have been established. The design emerges iteratively, through repeated design–evaluation–redesign cycles involving users. Broadly speaking, there are two types of design: conceptual and physical. The former is concerned with developing a conceptual model that captures what the product will do and how it will behave, while the latter is concerned with details of the design such as screen and menu structures, icons, and graphics. We discussed physical design issues relating to different types of interfaces in Chapter 6 and so we do not return to this in detail here, but refer back to Chapter 6 as appropriate.

For users to evaluate the design of an interactive product effectively, designers must produce an interactive version of their ideas. In the early stages of development, these interactive versions may be made of paper and cardboard, while as design progresses and ideas become more detailed, they may be polished pieces of software, metal, or plastic that resemble the final product. We have called the activity concerned with building this interactive version prototyping and construction.

There are two distinct circumstances for design: ...