Sessions

Learning Interaction Design From Everyday Objects
with Bill DeRouchey, Ziba

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Like every other design discipline, an important component of self-education is learning to critically examine what others have produced. And when it comes to interaction design, there are plenty of good and bad examples to guide us.

Inspiration for interaction design is all around us; all we have to do is stop and really look at the objects inside our homes, our cars, our workplaces or our pockets. Microwaves. Remote controls. Alarm clocks. Cell phones. Digital cameras. Game controllers. Music players. Washing machines. What icons, labels and colors do you find on these objects? How many buttons do you see? Too many? Too few? Is there enough uniformity? Variation? Most importantly, how easy is it for a new user to comprehend and actually use this interface?

Every one of these details is a direct result of someone’s design decision, whether intentional or subconscious. The key is to learn how to divine these intentions (or lack thereof) so that when we design, we leave nothing to chance.

In this session, you will:

About Bill DeRouchey

As a writer, web producer, product manager, information architect and now senior interaction designer for Ziba Design in Portland, OR, Bill has been simplifying how people interact with technology — including handheld devices, websites and environmental spaces — for over fifteen years.

Bill also writes about the evolution of technology on his blog, History of the Button, where he poses esoteric questions such as: What was the first button? Who invented the pause icon? And why does “pushbutton” translate to “easy”? From these explorations, Bill hopes to understand how people think about technology — the cognitive foundation of interaction design — and apply that perspective to the design of the ubiquitous, content-dense, touch-sensitive future.

4 Responses to “Learning Interaction Design From Everyday Objects”

  1. {sf} Sam Felder » Blog Archive » AP UX Week ‘07: Learning Interaction Design From Everyday Objects Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 10:22 am

    […] blogged notes from Adaptive Path UX Week 2007. Learning Interaction Design From Everyday Objects by Bill […]

  2. Interacciones» Archivo » Learning Interaction Design From Everyday Objects Says:
    September 11th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    […] Interaction Design From Everyday Objects es la presentación de Bill DeRouchey en el AP UX Week, en donde se puede acceder a la presentación + el audio de la misma en […]

  3. Patricia Garcia Says:
    October 22nd, 2007 at 3:19 pm

    Nice presentation. I just wanted to share this story with you. You use the TIVO remote control as an example to analyze and point out how the PAUSE is the center, easily accessible. Whenever I am watching TV and my 3-yr old son asks for something, if not urgent, I ask him to wait for commercial. He has learned that if you press that center yellow button, the TV stops, press it again, it goes again. He doesn’t get any other button, but that one he knows, so when I ask him to wait, he presses the PAUSE and tells me I can go now.

  4. Iain Lowe Says:
    August 20th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Hi:

    A little late to the game, but I’ve enjoyed very much this presentation. one little note of interest:

    The zero/one on a power switch: I had always understood that these symbols were even more arcane than the binary 0-1. I had understood that they come from electronics schematics where the circle represents an “Open” circuit (no power) and a line represents a “Closed” circuit (power).

    Any thoughts on this?

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