This is a partial summary of Chapter 7 "Refinement" of Dan Saffer's book "Designing for interaction, 2nd edition".
The full summary is composed of four parts (check them out as well):
Frameworks
"Every product needs a framework: an actual or metaphysical structure that defines the product and integrates the content and functionality into a unified whole." There are three main kinds of frameworks that can be applied to a product:
- Metaphor.
A way for users to understand abstract concepts (ex: GUI, dashboards and control panels) - Postures.
Common types of structures for the design of software (called by Alan Cooper):- Sovereign: for complex, large and that take up a large portion of the screen when in use (ex: Ms. Word).
- Transient: for temporary and light applications that use only a small amount of screen estate (ex: installers, widgets, calc)
- Daemonic: for the ones that mostly run in the background (ex: anti-viruses, Growl). The controls are mostly limited to setup and configurations.
- Parasitic: for applications that supplements another application or service. (ex: Tweet-Deck)
- Structure.
Layout of panels in the application, interplay between hardware and software. Methods to determine the structure:- Functional Cartography: determine the location of functional pieces of the product. Designers need to decide on if the controls for the functionality are analog
(ex: physical buttons), digital (onscreen controls) or a hybrid (ex: soft keys). It should be documented in order to
help designers with sketching, modeling and prototyping. Factors considered when deciding on the cartography:
- Context: where and when will the functionality be used?
- Priority: how important is this functionality?
- Cost: how much is it gonna cost?
- Ergonomics: what is the easiest to use for the users?
- Aesthetics: does it match the overal design?
- Tangibility: how tactile does it need to be?
- Site / Screen / State Maps: determine how the pieces of functionality flow and how users navigates between them (ex: site maps on the web - accessed by hyperlinks)
in order to unify the product.
- The organization of the content is the discipline of Information Organization.
- State - particular moment in the interaction:
- Initiation: default state - how does it look like, what to do in order to change it?
- Activation: what happens during the action (ex: while the item is dragged)
- Updates: state after the user finished an action.
- Mode - general condition that allows for different functionality / states to be accessed. (ex: "editing" mode)
- Functional Cartography: determine the location of functional pieces of the product. Designers need to decide on if the controls for the functionality are analog
(ex: physical buttons), digital (onscreen controls) or a hybrid (ex: soft keys). It should be documented in order to
help designers with sketching, modeling and prototyping. Factors considered when deciding on the cartography:
References and further readings
- Dan Saffer, "Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices", 2nd Edition, (2009), chapter 7
- The rest of the summary of Chapter 7 "Refinement": The Law and Principles of Interaction Design, Documentation and Methods of Refinement, Controls and Inputs
- Human-Computer Interaction & Cognition: reading list
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