Interaction Design Rationale

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Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis
Ask about the availability of the thesis by sending email to the Aalto University Learning Centre oppimiskeskus@aalto.fi

Date

2016-12-12

Department

Major/Subject

Human-Computer Interaction and Design

Mcode

SCI3020/SCI3100

Degree programme

Master's Programme in ICT Innovation

Language

en

Pages

37 + 40

Series

Abstract

Understanding design practice and the design rationale behind it is a growing field of HCI research and yet we do not have a complete understanding of design practice. This study seeks for a deeper understanding on how interaction designers design and the reasoning behind their design practices. This study reports the results of a recent survey of professional interaction designer practitioners. The aim of the survey is to get a general understanding of different interaction designers’ practices worldwide. The survey involved 51 respondents. The first main finding of the survey is that those designers, who re-use their own work as inspiration search for different kind of external inspiration than those who do not re-use their own work as inspiration. The second main finding is that the selection of design tool has an effect on the changes of the design artifact. In other words, designers generate more similar alternatives of their design artifact, when do not use certain tool. Even though the selection of the tool effects the similarity of the alternatives, the similarity of the concept alternatives does not affect, who is the person who decides about them. More specifically, according to the third main finding, the person who impacts the decision about the design, does not differ depending how similar or different the design alternatives are. The fourth main finding is related to design rationale. The rationale behind interaction design can be understanding what works when looking for inspiration, using paper prototype for communication or concept development, switching to digital tool because the concept is verified or the direction of the design is clear. The importance of this research is the thorough description and analysis of interaction designers’ approaches from practical point of view. This insight can be used for further exploration of more effective and efficient design practices.

Description

Supervisor

Oulasvirta, Antti

Thesis advisor

Koch, Janin

Keywords

interaction design, design practice, web design, design rationale

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