This talk tied in with the the Barbican Art Gallery exhibition (16 September 2004–23 January 2005) and Laurence King book Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties, to which I contributed a chapter entitled ‘British Web Design: a brief history’.

My presentation was followed by a talk entitled ‘Vandal Squad and Other Stories’ by Vassilios Alexiou of Less Rain.

Who am I?

Not a designer

Writing about Web/interaction design for almost ten years, including What is Web Design? (RotoVision, 2003)

Involved in design strategy and management

As well as programming events such as Designing the Internet (1996), Design For Usability (2000), ACM SIGCHI (Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction) panels and symposia, and AIGA Experience Design London talks.

Introduction to talk themes

[Slide 1.]

I am going to look at Web/interaction design with respect to:

• Why it is so important
• What is unique about design in this medium
• Key directions
• Barriers to development

Why so important?

[Slide 2.]

Why is Web/interaction design so important? If we extend it to interaction design, you will find it is all around you:

• The Apple iPod and PDAs (personal digital assistants)
• Digital TV and personal video recorder (PVR) interfaces, and digital Hi-Fi systems
• Ticket machines on the London Underground
• ATMs
• High-end cars
• Mobile phone interfaces

It is the design discipline of the twenty-first century, and will inform all other design disciplines. It will help realise the potential of the digital/network society.

What is unique

[Slide 3.]

What is unique about design for interactive media and products? Many people are hung up on aesthetics.

It has four conventional dimensions: screen dimensions, depth/layers, time-based change, plus user-based interaction. For instance, interaction with a Web form, and the validation of the form, seen in one’s interaction with a bank Web site. We haven’t learned much in this area from software graphical user interface (GUI) design. See also games design, where people don’t talk much about formal aesthetics. There is beauty in this when it is done well, as there is in games. Which is not to say that formal aesthetics isn’t important – and it will become more important in future. [Slide 4.] Image: 5-dimensions illustration

Also person-to-person interaction. See Vassilios Alexiou’s presentation, and services such as Ebay and Betfair, and Weblogging.

Also, about designing complex systems and information structures [Slide 5.] Image: Contempt eDesign flow diagram, presented in the What is Web Design? book

Understanding human cognition: In the area of interaction, interfaces need to communicate to the user what they do and how they are to be used, what state they are in, and how to correct errors. [Slide 6.] Image: Ideo testing, presented in the What is Web Design? book

A muted response from graphic design: In the UK, graphic designers have been slow to grasp this. And as I discovered writing the Communicate chapter, established British graphic designers have had little influence on the development of Web design. They are focused on experience, and not sure how to achieve the necessary degree of control. They forget their design process and methods, and get obsessed with tools. [Slide 7.] Image: Communicate cover

Key directions

[Slide 8.]

What are the key directions for Web/interaction design?

Learning from graphic design! Aesthetics, information graphics and visualisation, typography, editorial design and flow, use of imagery and time-based media. Creation of desire and delight. What could we do with search if we learned from Charles Joseph Minard?! What could we take from designers in this show? [Slide 9.] Image: Olivetti poster, presented in the What is Web Design? book. And the Edward Tufte poster of Charles Joseph Minard visualising the losses suffered by Napoleon’s army in the Russian campaign of 1812

Breaking out of the Web browser/design patterns. Designers need to think about design for the Internet rather than the Web. And go beyond the desktop. [Slide 10.] Image: Konfabulator desktop widgets.

Designing for context of use and moving between contexts, including the built environment [Slide 11.] Image: Prada flagship store, presented in the What is Web Design? book. Roku SoundBridge Network Music Player. Palm Treo smartphone.

New kinds of interfaces, including environmental displays, portable devices (including mobile phones), physical/representational interfaces, limited-state devices (Ambient Devices), and non-interactive interfaces (eg: paper) [Slide 12.] Image: LeapFrog LeapPad. And the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea ‘Mobile Embodiments’ research project by Analia Cervini, Juan Kayser and Mack Thomas.

Barriers

[Slide 13.]

What are the barriers to the development of Web/interaction design?

• Lack of ambition and investment in business and government (except, see Greater London Authority Congestion Charge and, possibly, the proposal for ID cards)
• Inadequate collaboration between designers and other parties, such as engineers
• Underestimation of users’ abilities and lack of consideration of how people live their lives
• Lack of Festival of Britain-style humanism, ie: a desire to make people’s lives better. Belief that people are comfortably off and their lives don’t need to be improved – or their actions are actually the problem.

Thank you and Questions

[Slide 14.]