The Chicken Coop

So, I’m having a listen to Rod talking about Interaction Design from the WebStock Mini conference the other week.

While I have a few nits to pick with it (more in a moment), I must say “go watch it”. It’s a pity it’s not available as MP3, as the video is hefty, but either way, it’s worth the download. (I imagine the others are too, but I’ve not listened to them yet.)

Some of the nits (and good things) I feel I need to comment on are – and I need to emphasise that the nits are very minor:

The comments about staying low-fi as long as possible is key. Images and diagrams (“wireframes”) can be changed in minutes or seconds. Developed UI’s change in hours, days or weeks. It’s very cheap vrs very very expensive.

A lot of the “techniques” which PhilC uses (and I imagine PhilF (from Xero) does too) are based around the teachings at Cooper|U and the books “About Face” and “The inmates are running the asylum” (both by Alan Cooper). If you develop or design software, you need to read these, even if you are not doing “interaction design” per-se.

The tool an interaction designer uses doesn’t matter – and Rod’s comments prove this – PhilC uses Corel, PhilF uses Flash. It’s whatever the ID works best in that matters, as long as it’s NOT one thing: An IDE. An IDE is too close to the developers, and there is a temptation to use what the ID builds. If it’s in flash or corel (ie static), there is no direct path to actual code.

Rod’s comments about BA’s moving into interaction design I both agree and disagree with. In the Cooper way of doing things, interaction design is done in teams of three people – the interaction designer (ala PhilC), a design communicator, and a graphic designer. The ID does interaction, but doesn’t usually do the pretty pictures. The GD does the pretty pictures, and the DC wraps it all up in something that normal people can digest – puts words around it, and comes up with the form and behaviour specification (it looks to me like PhilC and PhilF both do ID and GD – again, I dont know PhilF, so I may be wrong here). These three people are a group of peers, with very different skills. There is often some overlap with ID and GD tho.

I think most BA’s would fit into the design communicator role, unless they are graphicly talented. Having all three is essential, I think, to doing interaction design – but there is seldom one person who can do all three.

I think the bottom line is: you do specifications, right? You think about what you do before you do it? If you dont, you need to. If you do, consider using the goal and interaction driven method. But dont forget that this usually only covers the interface – if you application is a lot more than just UI (eg Archive Manager is about 75% invisible and 25% UI), you still need to do more “old fashion” specs in conjunction with the interaction designs.

Nice talk Rod – I hope to see it in person one day. BTW, Xero is looking rather cool, too. If we were not closing up our businesses, I’d be moving them to it.