Interaction Design Methods

Pre-Presentation The Innovation Board is a framework that combines best practices from user-centered design.  Its main goal is to create a shared language to bridge the communication gap between Doers (Individuals involved in creating or improving digital products and services) and Enablers (managers who want to foster innovation through user-centric development). Just like in the story of Babylon, a project is to fail when the people do not understand each other. Before one can start there a few basic tools mentioned that are essential for innovation. To name a few: Time-Boxing: In the last module Design Process we were asked to create a first prototype within 30 minutes. I learned how valuable such "pressure-cooker" exercizes are. There is no time for discussing back and forth instead it requires a "yes and" approach in teamwork. Teamwork Techniques: The book touches on the topic of teamwork, presenting multiple ways to improve it such as not creating a hierarc...

  Pre-Presentation I find it a quite interesting practice and hobby of the polish science fiction author Stanislav Lem to write reviews about a conference that hasn't happened yet. The advantage of it is to contrast different core ways of how a topic can be looked at and its different aspects by breaking it down into its essential parts. However separating such "stereotypical types" also opens the door to assumptions. The way it was done in "Evaluating Design fiction: The right tool for the job" I find it to be well implemented, but the truth is multifacetted and to avoid falling into the trap of generating a fake reality it is important to reach out to the actual users. For that there are multiple methods of user-testing processes [Image on the right], each highlighting different aspects and with each there being important specific knowledge to be gained. However, unlimited testing is rarely ever the case and the designers and researchers are bound by time and ...

Pre-Presentation I find the question of space for ideologies (with ideology I mean every thought that proposes an aspect of an idealized future) in the realm of art highly interesting, since it is an inevitable aspect of art. Technologies can encourage behavior. And diegetic prototypes (highlight the importance of visual storytelling) can encourage such technologies to be invented. Only recently I had a discussion with somebody who at one point said "If you see, you believe", talking about that change must be driven by people, it must first be shown before it can happen. And these diegetic prototypes are founded on ideologies. Speculative narratives give people a window to a possible future and envisioning a technology or a product could lead to new discoveries, could foster motivation and prompt new interest. This makes me think of the Jedi lightsabers of Star Wars, a highly acclaimed franchise. These futuristic swords have been adored by fans for ages, which lead to people ...