What Interaction Design Can Teach Architects (Video)
As architecture evolves by gaining renewed methods of interaction, I think it is good for architects to gain perspective from the field of interaction design. The following video reviews some key concepts that interaction designers use to execute their designs. Look out for the three leading questions that drive all interaction projects.
VIDEO REVIEW
Interaction design is defined by Wikipedia as the “discipline of defining the behavior of products and systems that a user can interact with”. In this video, Bill Verplank explains very clearly what an interaction designer must accomplish in a successful design.
Essentially, an interaction designer must work to answer three leading questions:
- How will a user cause an effect?
- How will a user feel when getting feedback?
- How will a user know what to do?
It is interesting to hear about how causing an effect is like pushing a button or pulling a handle. The distinction between either continuous or discreet control poses some interesting questions for architects.
Cool versus hot media is certainly a good way to characterize feedback. One distinction about whether or not feedback is changeable would really make for some great interactive architecture. Such architects can ask questions about how much feedback is necessary, what form should it take, and what level of further interaction would make a design successful.
So, as an architect, should you provide an overall map to your occupants about how the building works (or behaves)? Maybe a step by step guided path would present your occupant with the necessary knowledge to engage your occupants within your design. Architects must always “speak” to their occupants through their projects, revealing what information is necessary for their occupants — at the right time and place.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Do you have other guiding principles about what makes for good interaction between architecture and occupants? As architecture gets even more dynamic, how can its flexibility make for better interactions?
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