Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: "The principal has largely to do with how all direct manipulation should strive to behave like an extension of ones fingertips. To get a true sense of control over any interface -- and that's the real crux of any interaction with an interface for any digital device, that sense of control over it -- the more the direct manipulation behaviors operate like ones' fingertips, the better the interface will feel to the end user. This is a design principal I have found true in all circumstances, outside of context."
-------------------------- This principle extends beyond fingertips. For example: my car is extension of my body, wii is extension of my arm. The more generic principle would be this: *The more the direct manipulation confirms to the mental model of the system (including the reflexive mental mapping), the more natural the interaction will feel to the end user. * The scroll bar manipulation in Word contradicts the stimulus-response compatibility of the mental mapping. Incidentally this generic principle is part of Reason's and Norman's models of errors. Oleh > On Dec 27, 2007, at 7:30 AM, Dan Saffer wrote: > > So you feel that everything is contextual, that there are no universal > > principles of good design that are always true? > To which Dave replied... > On Dec 27, 2007, at 9:08 AM, dave malouf wrote: > > Of course, at a biological level we all receive signals > > neurologically at the some level of commonality. But I have learned > > in my studies that cultural interpretations of signals can differ > > dramatically. For example, snow classification among eskimos, or in > > dream analysis falling dreams is a positive among people from New > > Guinea. > Careful Dave... you are showing your education bias here. 8^) > Please allow me to respectfully disagree. > There are design principals in all design fields, whether you want to > believe in them or not. It's like gravity. You can choose to ignore > it but it's still there keeping you alive on planet Earth without > asking for any compensation in return. > Color has core principals that define how color works and behaves. > Just look to Josef Albers "Interaction of Color" book for many of > these. Typography also has many core principals, many of which can be > found in Bringhurst's "Elements of Typographic Style." Tufte explains > some great core information design principals in "Envisioning > Information"; layering and separation, small multiples, etc. Grids, > proportions, composition... it's all there. And it works in the > background whether you know it or not in any design field. > All of these design principals exist largely outside of cultural > boundaries. In the case of type, we're mostly talking about roman > letter forms. But there are many principals in Asian alphabets as > well. And while it would be true that cultural bias largely dictates > the implementation of many core design principals, cultural bias does > not define these principals any more than how gravity works in China > or Mexico or Nigeria. > There are certainly some very sound principals in interaction design, > we just need to get better at defining them. > One of the few I've been discussing a lot in the recent past, as a > means of teaching students and discussing my design process with new > hires, is the concept of control via direct manipulation as an > extension of ones fingertips. It's long been understood how direct > manipulation in software has given normal people the means to work > with computers. It's the very foundation of the graphical user > interface over the command line. The basis for drag and drop, > iconography and the entire mouse interaction. But within direct > manipulation, there's a larger point I find a lot of interaction > design types not expressing well or neglecting to pay attention to in > their work. > The principal has largely to do with how all direct manipulation > should strive to behave like an extension of ones fingertips. To get > a true sense of control over any interface -- and that's the real > crux of any interaction with an interface for any digital device, > that sense of control over it -- the more the direct manipulation > behaviors operate like ones' fingertips, the better the interface > will feel to the end user. This is a design principal I have found > true in all circumstances, outside of context. > This principal by the way is largely why people respond so well to > the iPod and the iPhone. The interface's direct manipualtion pieces > are driven more by fingertip actions than anything. It's why the > interface in the movie "Minority Report" seems so cool and natural. > The glass wall computer was driven by using one's hands and fingers. > With computer and web software, we are always going to be limited in > the short term by the mouse, which can sometimes feel like an > extension of one's fingers, but more often then not, it doesn't > fulfill on the promise of the touch screen approaches from the > iPhone. Yet even with the mouse, there are ways to get as far as one > can to make the interaction feel like an extension of one's fingers. > This design principal explains why scrolling on the iPhone feels > better than scrolling on a computer. Dragging your finger across the > iPhone screen to scroll up or down moves the content in direct > relation to your fingers, and as such, feels as if you are in direct > control of the thing you are touching. On a computer, using the mouse > to click and drag the scroll thumb doesn't feel as natural in > comparison. The main reasons are that on a scrollbar, you click and > drag the thumb in the opposite direction to move the content (drag > down to scroll up) as compared to the iPhone where you drag your > fingers in the same direction to move the content. Further, on the > iPhone, you click and drag the thing itself to scroll, whereas on the > computer, you have to grab the scrollbar on the side, a control that > is ancillary to the thing you want to manipulate, forcing you to drop > focus to target the widget, for example. > This sort of design principal also explains why actions like holding > the spacebar in Photoshop to drag the canvas around horizontally and > vertically is something many people who use the product find > infinitely more usable than the operating system scrollbars. The hand > tool shortcut with the spacebar in Photoshop lacks the directness of > touching the screen to do it, but the fundamental concept behind it > is the same. > Interactions that are designed to feel like extensions of your > fingers will always feel more correct than those that require > intermediary widgets or controls. > So there you go... I'm sure I'm not the first person who has observed > this or has thought of this. But Dan's question is important. The > answer to his question is that yes, there are design principals that > exist outside of context, all fields of design have them. This > segment of the design world needs to discover and define its own to > better help those that will be changing the world long after we are > all gone. > -- > Andrei Herasimchuk > Principal, Involution Studios > innovating the digital world > e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > c. +1 408 306 6422 > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Oleh Kovalchuke Interaction Design is the Design of Time http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
