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6.2 What is interaction design about? 167

design. For example, Danis and Boies (2000) found that using techniques from
graphic design that encouraged the generation of alternative designs stimulated in-
novative interactive systems design. See also the interview with Gillian Crampton
Smith at the end of this chapter for her views on how other aspects of traditional
design can help produce good interaction design.
Although possible, it is unlikely that just one person will be involved in devel-
oping and using a system and therefore the plan must be communicated. This re-
quires it to be captured and expressed in some suitable form that allows review, ~
revision, and improvement. There are many ways of doing this, one of the simplest
being to produce a series of sketches. Other common approaches are to write a de-
scription in natural language, to draw a series of diagrams, and to build prototypes.
A combination of these techniques is likely to be the most effective. When users
are involved, capturing and expressing a design in a suitable format is especially
important since they are unlikely to understand jargon or specialist notations. In
fact, a form that users can interact with is most effective, and building prototypes of
one form or another (see Chapter 8) is an extremely powerful approach.
So interaction design involves developing a plan which is informed by the
product's intended use, target domain, and relevant practical considerations. Alter-
native designs need to be generated, captured, and evaluated by users. For the
evaluation to be successful, the design must be expressed in a form suitable for
users to interact with.

Imagine that you want to design an electronic calendar or diary for yourself. You might use
this system to plan your time, record meetings and appointments, mark down people's birth-
days, and so on, basically the kinds of things you might do with a paper-based calendar.
Draw a sketch of the system outlining its functionality and its general look and feel. Spend
about five minutes on this.
Having produced an outline, now spend five minutes reflecting on how you went about
tackling this activity. What did you do first? Did you have any particular artifacts or experi-
ence to base your design upon? What process did you go through?

Comment The sketch I produced is shown in Figure 6.1. AS you can see, I was quite heavily influenced
by the paper-based books I currently use! I had in mind that this calendar should allow me
to record meetings and appointments, so I need a section representing the days and months.
But I also need a section to take notes. I am a prolific note-taker, and so for me this was a
key requirement. Then I began to wonder about how I could best use hyperlinks. I certainly
want to keep addresses and telephone numbers in my calendar, so maybe there could be a
link between, say, someone's name in the calendar and their entry in my address book that
will give me their contact details when I need them? But I still want the ability to be able to
turn page by page, for when I'm scanning or thinking about how to organize my time. A
search facility would be useful too.
The first thing that came into my head when I started doing this was my own paper-based
book where I keep appointments, maps, telephone numbers, and other small notes. I also
thought about my notebook and how convenient it would be to have the two combined.
Then I sat and sketched different ideas about how it might look (although I'm not very good
at sketching). The sketch in Figure 6.1 is the version I'm happiest with. Note that my sketch