[ID Discuss] Interaction design == web design

[molly wright steenson]

as i said (and i'm just about to head out of town for a few days, so 
i'm sorry for the silence that will follow):

HCI and interaction design may touch but is not specifically or 
necessarily interaction design.

why? because not everything is design. i don't think that all HCI 
people want to be considered designers, nor should they be. interaction 
design is the design of interactions of things that involve chips (as 
gillian crampton-smith, director of interaction-ivrea, recently said to 
a group of us at the school).



On Apr 19, 2004, at 3:02 PM, id at ourbrisbane.com wrote:

> Quoting molly wright steenson <molly at girlwonder.com>:
>> It seems like you specifically are talking about human factors and 
>> HCI.
>> That's something that also touches interaction design but is not
>> specifically or necessarily interaction design. (Though maybe the 
>> folks
>> who are going to CHI next week in Vienna might feel differently, and
>> I'd love a report!)
>
> This fascinates me.  If Human Factors isn't interaction design, then 
> what
> exactly *is* interaction design?
>
> I've mentioned all this before on this list, but for those of you that 
> aren't
> aware, Human Factors is the study (both qualitative and quantitative) 
> of humans
> interacting with systems (where a system may be a piece of technology, 
> other
> humans, an environment, or a combination of these), and the 
> application of this
> knowledge to the subsequent design or re-design of said systems to 
> ensure that
> they are safe, effective, efficient and satisfying to use.  It draws 
> upon the
> disciplines of computer science, engineering, anthropology, cognitive
> psychology, applied physiology, sociology, anthropometry, statistics, 
> industrial
> design, and environmental medicine.
>
> Chapanis (1985) defined Human Factors as follows:
> "Human factors discovers and applies information about human behavior,
> abilities, limitations, and other characteristics to the design of 
> tools,
> machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments for productive, safe,
> comfortable, and effective human use."
>
> Granted, traditionally Human Factors has been used to design critical 
> systems
> such as those found in aviation, medicine, energy, mining, transport 
> systems,
> etc; but more recently (the last 20 years or so) the discipline has 
> been
> employed to design consumer systems such as OXO's "Sure Grips" range 
> of kitchen
> appliances, Nokia's "Human Technology" software and hardware, Apple 
> Computer's
> Software and Hardware, Palm's PDA, Johnson & Johnson's "Reach" 
> toothbrushes, and
> many more.
>
> I've been under the impression that Interaction Design (like so many 
> of the
> other fields that seem to have popped up in the last 10 years) was 
> either a
> simplified subset of, or just another (more apt) name for the 
> discipline of
> Human Factors.  Any light you can shed on what Interaction Design 
> covers that
> departs from Human Factors, and how it does so would be much 
> appreciated.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ash Donaldson
> "It depends."
> User Experience Designer
>