Verplank's Interaction Design summary

Bill Verplank’s Interaction Design Sketchbook offers four primary sections in describing the design process. These are Sketching, Interaction, Design, and Paradigm.

            Sketching is introduced as the as the first step in design, and as an essential way of understanding that separates people from other animals. Sketching can be detailed or general, physically representative or ideational. Sketching offers a visual understanding of a subject that can then be referenced and edited to develop systems, ideas, and forms.

            Interaction introduces three important questions. How do you do, feel, and know in relation to actions and stimuli you are presented with. The “doing” aspect deals with the physical actions we associate with tasks or the results of those tasks. The “knowing “ aspect recognizes mental maps we make of not only spaces, but ideas, and how we connect them to one another based on personal and cultural expectations. The “feeling” is associated primarily with the physical stimuli that suggest what we should do based on what we know. Feeling is also important in how we group and divide things, not only in terms of rough and smooth surfaces, but also connotations such as hot and cold colors.

            The idea of design, in interaction design terms is the arrangement of displays and controls that coincide with the assumptions that come with how a given people ‘knows,’ ‘feels,’ and ‘does.’ This design process is acknowledging these common assumptions and arranging information and tasks so that there is an easy subconscious understanding of what is happening and what needs to be done.

            “Paradigms” is the section with the most examples in this reading due to the more obscure nature of the subject. In essence, paradigms are the conceived metaphorical groupings between people and the objects they interact with based on the purpose the grouping has. They are patterns that we observe and utilize based on our situation. Clothes are tools to keep us alive and comfortable physically, they are fashion to express our preferences, and they are vehicles in that they provide a perceived comfort in our ability to assimilate with a notion of what is appropriate for a given situation, eg. Black clothes at a funeral, expressive clothes at festivities.