As an example of the far-reaching impact of interaction design, I recently wrote about the Boston MBTA subway system and the Charlie kiosks that are used to purchase fares. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people ride the Boston subway and many of them are confused and frustrated by the interaction design of the kiosk. http://incontextdesign.com/blog/interaction-design-and-the-boston-subway/
In the process of trying to understand the root of the problem, it raised some additional interesting questions for me: What are some other good examples of interaction design that affect multitudes of people-and those people are forced to use it? They didn't choose to buy a computer, their job doesn't require them to use one, and maybe they weren't even expecting to use one. What are the potential impacts of good or bad interaction design in these situations? How many people could be affected? How severe could the impact be? How does it change people's perceptions of the overall service being provided? If it's a public service, like the subway, how does it affect our perception of government? Can we do more to prevent poor interaction designs in the first place? How do we help designers create a solid core or foundation to start with? Are we doing enough? As interaction designers, are we being held responsible for the affects of our designs? Should we be more accountable? -dave David B. Rondeau Design Chair InContext Design ( http://www.incontextdesign.com ) http://twitter.com/dbrondeau ________________________________________________________________ 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
