experience and interaction design
the european health network (ehn) aims to re-design the service experience of catsalut for foreign tourists visiting barcelona. in order to showcase the improvement of this experience a particular target group has been chosen to design for: pregnant women travelling.
www.cookingforyou.cat is an interface prototype showcasing a clearly arranged flow throughout a website. It provides users an easy interaction in order to book a chef for private events. Underlining the importance of a well-designed interface, cooking for you represents the initial touch point of a service and the very first part of a user experience.
building a connection between virtual and physical world will soon gain ground in everybody's living room. besides of its entertaining value, this connection also represents a big potential to improve living quality for people having special needs. this interaction design jam creates a system specialized for elderly.​
this design jam deals with design validation based on Donald Norman's principles of design and redesign. analysing and reframing a problem allows to create a different concept, providing users a new and satisfying interaction with an item, which might have seemed well known and common.
re-design an experience
interface prototyping
design for special needs
rethink the existing
interaction design (ixd) facilitates interactions between people and their environment. interaction designers are basically concerned with how users and computers interact with each other, unlike to user experience (ux) designers, who take all user-facing aspects of a software or a system into account. it is crucial however to understand who the target of the product or service is and who will use it. the following aspects are of main importance when designing interactions in the short, and experiences in the long run.
1. goal driven
a successful combination of design and functionality leads back to fully developed user and design research, which are central elements within ixd.
2. simplicity
in today's complex and information overloaded world users yearn for simple products. they want something easy to use, which takes little time to load and to respond, and doesn't make the user think or worry about anything.
3. affordances and patterns
affordance explains the functionality behind a system, which is designed in a specific way, so that everybody knows how to use it. using familiar components in established patterns allows users an easy navigation.
lecturer
4. orientation
successful ixd constantly shows users their current position avoiding the experience to become confusing. clearly demonstrated options of further actions give users confidence throughout the process.
5. constant dialog, feedback
constant feedback telling the user having done something is right or wrong is an important element of ixd. even on an unconscious level this dialog is appreciated.
6. workflow
interactions should follow logical steps fitting into the intended user experience.
7. visual hierarchies
through visual hierarchies using layout, size and colour direct user attention through a system. it can also help them to find what they are looking for.
8. evaluation
testing is a central key driver for successful ixd showcasing if the aforementioned aspects are respected and work in the intended way.