Interaction related properties of interactive artifacts

Seminarium

Avdelningen för interaktionsdesign håller seminarier för sina kollegor. Med Sus Lundgren.

Over the years, several attempts have been made to describe properties of interactive artifacts and/or interaction. However, these attempts tend to describe more than one aspect, e.g. combining artifact properties with aspects of the user¿s experience and/or with aspects that arise in use. Or, authors have focused on a small subset of qualities, or very overarching or very domain-specific qualities.

I have made an attempt to describe only interaction-related properties of interactive artifacts in themselves, i.e. explicitly focusing on what can actually be inscribed into an interactive artifact (as opposed to what the user may experience, or what may happen during interaction). The aim has been to extend the interaction designer¿s vocabulary, providing a means for discussing, analyzing and comparing the interactive aspects of things. The collection of properties is comparably extensive; it contains 30 properties related to six different categories: Interaction; Expression; Behavior; Complexity; Time and Change; and Users. I will discuss them briefly, but focus more on how such a collection could be used as a tool for design, redesign and analysis.