Week 01: What is interaction design?
Interaction design = Language
Why do we need language? It is because language makes us easy, efficient, and comfortable to communicate with others. It also give us feel linked together. I believe interaction design plays a role of language when we communicate with our surroundings or objects. There should be a kind of rules to understand and even sympathize each other, and that is what interaction designers should design.
What happens when two people with another language meet? (This situation is similar to that when we encounter an object that we have never seen before.) They might have some problems to get to know each other. Of course, they can exchange simple expressions through gestures, but this can be also one of languages. That’s why we call them body ‘language’. Since the depth of relationship by body language must be not deep enough, they should learn each other’s languages to make complicate conversations. When we learn other languages that are similar to the one that we are familiar with, it might be relatively easy to pick up. This is why interaction designers are required to analyze users’ ‘language’. They should consider users characteristics, needs, circumstances, and lifestyle. When we design innovative things, no matter how innovative they are, they should be easily learned by users.
