The Origin of Interaction Design
The history of interaction design began with the invention of the computer though this term did not exist back then. Computer engineers developed means through which users could operate (interact with) these computers which were mostly used for computations. They designed the system through which an operator could feed information to the computer to get a desired output and this later was termed as interaction design. But is that really the origin of interaction design? I believe that the origin of Interaction Design can be found way deep in the pages of history, to the origin of mankind or society. A series of interactions occurred between humans and their surrounding environment which lead to shaping of the world which inturn gave birth to the tools, computers and technology that we see today.
The first examples of interaction design can be found with early humans interacting with their own kind. They had no prior knowledge of a common language to communicate within themselves. Then how did they interact with each other? How did they design the first language of the mankind to interact with one another? Another example is of the humans interacting with stones and rocks to build tools to hunt animals for food or for fire. Interacting with the leaves of the plants to weave blankets or (later) for covering their bodies. Thus to me, these were the initially designed series of interactions.
The invention of the telephone.
Since a kid I was facinated with telephones, birth of smart phones was yet to occur. One of my past times then was to rotate the dial on the telephone. The sound that it made with every rotation, the automatic return of the dial back to its position, the way my fingers could force the dial to rotate again all seemed very amusing. But were these interactions designed particularly the way we design touchscreens nowadays? Maybe not. These interactions might have been consciously designed but could have been the byproduct of the technology being developed then. So how can the origins of interaction design be with the birth of the computers? Maybe the term ‘interaction design’ got coined later, but interaction design in the broader sense has been in the background since.
In my product design class, we were always told to pay attention to ergonomics while designing the form of the product. To design for the touch, feel, look of the product to raise the emotional value of the product for the user and design the behaviour of the product with it’s environment. What they simply meant to say was design the interactions for the product. Thus in my opinion the birth of interaction design is not as recent as it is claimed to be. It was always being designed unconsciously, until recent times where designing interactions is a practice, a way of thinking.
