Planning Tools For Interaction

A Guide To Making Toast

Step-by-step text Description:

START
1. Take bread out of packaging
2. Observe outside of bread for strange marks. (is it fresh?)
3. Place on kitchen table
4. Plug toaster into power output
5. Switch on toaster power switch
6. Place bread into toaster slot vertically
7. Adjust dial on the toaster to level of darkness (1 to 6)
8. Press down lever and wait for release (is it on?)
9. Wait for toast to cool down
10. Is it safe to touch?
11. Take out and place on plate
12. Is it to your preference of darkness?
13. Prepare to eat
END

Flowchart:

Storyboard:

Mood Board:

John is a 75-year-old retired carpenter who still enjoys hikes in national parks and ridding his Harley-Davidson. He looks forward to the local club raffle and a catch up with the boys on a Thursday evening. He also enjoys playing bingo, listening to local radio and watching old western movies with his wife Jill. As he gets older and has to visit the hospital more often, he prefers quick and efficient healthcare with simple, bold instructions and hospital signs. He aims to enjoy the rest of his life traveling a little and spending time with family, especially his grandchildren.

• Location: Hobart
• Toaster Usage: Unfortunately Johnny has never used a fancy new electric toaster
• Computer/Internet Usage: PC, Occasionally browses the Internet with the help of his grandchildren.
• Computer Skill: Novice user. Finds things too complicated on the computer to use. Has an email but doesn’t know how to use it properly.

Information/Instructional Design - Examples

Both informational and instructional designs come in a variety of forms. This post will show you some aesthetically pleasing works that have been done. 

These images are apart of the 2006 Feltron Annual Report. Feltron have been known to have an appealing, modernized and definitely not mind-numbing approach to their annual reports. As you can tell just by looking over the images provided, they have only used a minimal color scheme. This creates a harmonious appearance without losing the goal of presenting their figures for that year in a clear and effective way.

These images are found in a pharmaceutical book called Nobrium: Towards True Precision in the Control of Excessive Anxiety by Mervyn Kurlansky. The book’s purpose is to show and educate on the scientific study of anxiety. The images have a contemporary feel even though being made in 1971. The colors are vibrant and look almost cartoon like. But in saying this, it does not diminish the usefulness and purpose of this book. Stating what each image is (from top to bottom): Cover, The neuro physiology of anxiety, Anxiety in the body and Anxiety: A physical profile.

This is an instructional design example about how to furoshiki. Furoshiki is a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth. In the Japanese culture, it promotes caring for the environment and reducing waste by using an eco-friendly wrapping cloth called furoshiki. Using techniques similar to origami, it can be used for gift-wrapping, grocery shopping etc. This image provides us with multiple ways in using furoshiki so it can be used on more then one occasion thus reducing waste.



Another instructional design example is a book called Show Me How – 500 Things You Should Know. This book is full of step-by-step guides from serious (repair ripped jeans and fold his clothes for travel) to more humorous guides (fire-roast a tarantula and wrestle alligator). All of the designs are in a simple cartoon style to carry on the idea of simplicity.

Reference

http://feltron.com/index.php?/content/2006_annual_report

http://thingstolookat.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/attach/060403-5.html
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/11/show_me_how_500.php

Information/Instructional Design - The Only Way To Comprehend The Complex

Information design is a practice that simplifies complicated information and makes it easier for the particular audience to understand and to use it effectively. Information design uses methods from a range of fields such as typography, graphic design, psychology, ergonomics and also computing. The most fundamental aspect of this discipline is how the data is presented. This is of importance because the user must be able to clearly and instantaneously interpret the data thus being able to maximize the efficacy and the knowledge learnt from the communicated information. Information designers must consider the selection, arrangement and presentation of the date in order to meet with the particular users preferences and purposes.

Instructional design is a specialty that creates instructional tools and content to encourage learning more effectively. Although having a similar concept to Information design, the procedure in making an instructional design is focused on establishing the current position and the needs of the learner. In addition, it is important to take into consideration the end goal of the instruction and also the attractiveness of it while remaining cost effective. Instructional designers implement interactive medias into their works in order to facilitate learning at the highest possible level and also to meet the objectives of the instructional design.

Interactive Design - Great Web Design Examples

With so many fantastic different types of interactive design websites, ill just show you some of my favorites.

Armani Jeans (www.armanijeans.com)

Armani Jeans has you travelling through the streets and alleyways with a bunch of lively young adults. As you are following them, you are able to look at the surroundings rather then being locked on to a certain viewpoint. Throughout your journey, you reach checkpoints where you are able to look at the current catalogue for the men and women’s clothing line and by proceeding further, it will allow you to view accessories and more. Armani Jeans has given us a creative spin to showing their latest line.

Nike iD (nikeid.nike.com)

Nike has created an ingenious idea of being able to create your own color scheme for your chosen sneakers. Not only does this allow you to be as creative as you want, it makes your sneakers unique. When customizing your sneakers, you are able to change the color of accent, swoosh, base, secondary and also receiving two colors of laces to match with your awesome kicks. In addition, at the end of your creation, you are able to place your ID on the side to make sure your kicks are definitely original. Unfortunately, you are only able to purchase your customized sneakers in certain countries (Australia not being one of them =( ).

Tronic (www.tronicstudio.com)

Tronic is a collective of architects, designers, art directors and directors. The site beautifully displays their work in a cyber-futuristic layout. By clicking on collection and selecting one of clients below, the background changes accordingly to the works done for the client. Clicking on the picture allows you to view the other images and also the videos are available to view above the image. The overall feel of the site is slick and smooth but also very unique in their approach to displaying their works and as well as how the company portrays themselves.

Architectural Association School of Architecture (www.aaschool.ac.uk/aadvd/)

Opening the site leads you to rows of student’s works from the Architectural Association School of Architecture. By minimizing and organizing the works, it allows you to easily view all of them without looking untidy. To improve efficiency of the site, running your mouse cursor over the rows opens it up so you can see a mini preview of the student’s works without having to click on it. Clicking on the images opens it to view the works closer. Instead of having to click on an icon to change images, the website automatically changes it like a slideshow. This is also another addition to the users being able to use the website efficiently. There are also texts accompanying the image to gather background information.

Interactive Design - The Connection Between Human and Product

Interactive design, also known as interaction design, is a field of study that revolves around the behavior of systems and products on the basis of how the user interacts with it. This discipline usually focuses on complex technology such as systems software, mobile devices and other electronic devices. An interaction designer puts the users goals and experience as a priority and analyzes accordingly to the usability and affective influence.

An interaction design aims are to minimize the learning curve and improve on productivity when performing a task. This becomes necessary when technologies become too complex for their target audience. With this motive, it rewards the user with more satisfaction and efficiency and reduces frustration when using the product/system.

The first step in creating an interaction design is to research and understand the target audience needs and design correspondingly to meet and even exceed them. Questions like ‘What are the users’ tasks and goals?’ and ‘How do users think the product/system should operate?’ come into account and become apart of the success of the product. Only by involving regular users of the product/system will the designer be able to properly modify and maximize intuitiveness. With users being a crucial part of a product’s development, consumers gain a sense of ownership thus being more satisfied with the end product. 

Web 2.0 - Examples

In this post, I will be breaking down the different types of Web 2.0 technologies and also providing you guys with some examples.

Examples of technologies used:

• Blogging – allows users to create their own site and produce an ongoing narrative. E.g. www.blogger.com, www.blogdrive.com.
• Tagging – a feature which allows you to categorize and organize content with one-word descriptive tags in order to assist in easier searches and avoid rigorous pre-made categories. E.g. www.flickr.com, delicious.com
• Wikis – a website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users. E.g. www.wikipedia.com
• RSS (abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) – this allows users to receive updates automatically when publishers have made entries or changes to their site. This is beneficial for readers who want to subscribe and keep posted with their favored websites and also allows the user to view it all in one convenient location of their choosing. The example given is a site which allows you to search for an RSS of your choice. www.syndic8.com
• Social Networking Sites - These are online communities of people who want to communicate and also share their interests and/or activities with others anywhere around the world. E.g. www.facebook.com, www.myspace.com, www.bebo.com

Web 2.0 - The Next Generation

Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web, which has objectives in further development of communication, secure and dependable information sharing, and also collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 has made evolutionary changes to web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs and folksonomies.

This term was first coined together after the O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a contemporary World Wide Web, it does not comment on updates to any technical specifications but makes reference to the changes of how software developers and end-users operate the web.

Rather then being built on one technology, Web 2.0 is built on several. An example is Ajax; this is used to create innovative interactive web or rich internet applications. Ajax is a web development technology that is based on JavaScript and XML. With this technology, users are able to use the World Wide Web more like an interactive desktop application instead of a read only website (Web 1.0).