What is interaction design?
Interaction designers as facilitators of relationships
Current personal definition
Interaction design (IxD) is the art of pairing appropriate outcome(s) to a given input or inputs. The object, service, technology, organization, social script, culture, or good may entice one to make an action (or input) but without a decision to engage, there is no result.
Now and future
Interaction design is an approach to relationship making. This sense of relationship making is reflected through facilitation and tangential insight by connecting ideas or approaches across disciplines.
These relationships extend beyond just building new and interesting products, enviroments, nature-centered activities, technologies, or social experiences. These roles as interaction designers are split up into three categories: fixation, decsion, and action. These categories touch on many broad relationships such as:
- Human–human
- Human–machine
- Human–nature
- Machine–machine
- Machine–nature
- Nature–nature (in some finite ways)
- and everything in-between
Fixation is the the lowest and most basic type of interactions. These interactions are centered around solving problems of navigation, information architecture, and aesthetic. These interactions are often lauded as the extremely important because they appeal to the lazy or system 1 brain, as Kauffman calls it, to influence choice and encourage passive or superficial thinking around our relationships with each other and the world.
Decision is the step of interaction design where proactive choice begins to take root and influences our perception of the future. This requires more deep contemplation and scenario building to design for the world and relationships we hope to achieve and not passively accept what is to come.
Action is the third step of psychological decision making where interaction designers pair both the skills of fixation and the qualitative depth and thoughtfulness of decision. This pairing allows one to encourage sustained active change.
In short, interaction designers are problem solvers who shape the relationships of people, nature, and culture. This understanding requires humility and desire to collaborate beyond the walls of one’s local design lab to develop truly meaningful ineractions.
