Elements of Interaction Design: The 5 Dimensions
Interaction design is a key component of user experience (UX) design. This article will teach you what it is, introduce useful interaction design models, and discuss the role of the interaction designer.
What is Interaction Design?
Interaction design refers to the design of interaction between users and products. The term is mostly applied to software products such as apps and websites.
The goal of interaction design is to create products that enable the user to achieve their objective(s) in the most practical way. But that’s a simplistic definition! Interaction design between a user and a digital product involves different elements like space, motion, aesthetics, and even sound; each element involves even more specialized fields like sound design to create sonic experiences in user interaction.
Where Does Interaction Design Fit in User Experience?
Interaction design shares many elements with UX. That’s because a significant part of the latter involves some interaction between the user and the product. Still, UX design is broader; you must consider user research, user personas, user testing, usability testing, and so much more.
The 5 Dimensions of Interaction Design
Let’s now introduce the five dimensions of interaction design as proposed by Gillian Crampton Smith and Kevin Silver.
1D: Words
Words should be meaningful and simple to understand, especially if they’re used in interactions such as button labels. They should also communicate information to users in meaningful bits and pieces.
2D: Visual representations
This refers to graphical elements like icons, images, and typography, that users interact with. They supplement the words used to communicate information to users.
3D: Physical objects or space
Digital products still need users to interact with them through a physical object or agent. This may be a smartphone, mouse, touchpad, laptop, or fingers. The user performs the interaction within some type of physical space. Examples include using a smartphone app while sitting in a bus or browsing the web while sitting on a desk in an office. These bits impact the interaction between the user and the product.
4D: Time
This points to animation, video, and sound media that change with time. Sound and motion elicit visual and audio feedback to user interactions. One also needs to consider the amount of time a user spends interacting with the product.
5D: Behavior
Referring to the mechanism of the product, behavior in interaction design explores how users perform actions on a digital product. How do they operate the product? That is, how do previous dimensions define the interactions of a product? It also consists of the reactions of users and the product, including emotional responses or feedback.
Interaction Design via UILand
Considering how users will interact with your product is crucial to building a more complete UX design. Overlooking interaction design is to ignore the most crucial bits of how your product will be used. UILand offers many examples of digital products with excellent interaction design. Sign up today and unlock new levels of user satisfaction.
