Interface Design for Software Engineers
Mithat Konar
2011–09–27
Interface design
- Many names/subspecialties:
- Interface design (UI design)
- Interaction design (IxD)
- Experience design (XD)
- User experience design (UXD)
Interface design
- Is it
- a science?
- engineering?
- psychology?
- design?
- something else?
- Short answers:
Not a science
- Science requires theory.
- Level of IxD theory is very poor.
- IxD is a young area.
- But it’s growing.
- Current theory is not good enough to adequately describe interface/interaction.
- Definitely not good enough to adequeately prescribe interface/interaction.
Involves psychology
- Esp. cognition
- Gestalt
- Affordances
- Neilsen and Norman
Well-suited for designers
- Design methodologies are good for “wicked” problems.
- Interface design is a wicked problem.
Also suitable for engineers
- Analytic approaches are possible
- Not theory, but structured thinking and methods
- Concepts and patterns for description
- “Pre-theoretic” generalizations
- Experience-based best practices and testing for prescription
- Engineer must
- Be comfortable with qualitative assessment
- Be capable of social orientation