Interaction Design:

Interactivity means that the user, not the designer, controls the sequence and pace … they decide what to look at and what to ignore.  Interaction Design defines where and how to give control to users.  The designer has to figure out what the user wants to do at any given time.

From flowchart to storyboard … shows pathways and controls … turns information to experience.  

At the 'big-picture' level this means:
•	motivating users to HAVE the experience; giving them clear guidance and options
•	creating an interesting journey, or at least a clear path, through the information
•	giving users controls that allow them to go where they want and do what they want
•	making the experience as easy and intuitive as possible

How much interaction?  This depends on the type of experience you want the user to have.  The goals always remain the same, however:  clarity, simplicity, ease of use.

From:

Slide Show
(minimal interactivity)

To:

Full Immersion Virtual Reality
(maximum interactivity)	Control Pace	Click when you're ready to advance to the next thing	
	Control Sequence	Choose where you want to go at any time	
	Control Media	Start/stop video; search text; scroll/zoom the view	
	Control Variables	Change the outcome of a chart; customize a database search	
	Control Transaction	Enter a password; pay a bill; send a message	
	Control Objects	Move things around on the screen; 'shoot' something; engage characters	
	Control Simulation	Change the perspective of view or course of events/actions	

Orientation:

Whether users get what they need (and whether or not they are willing to spend the time to find out) depends on getting them orientated right from the start.  The familiar paradigms of media (books, magazine, newspapers, radio, television…) are widely standardized and understood.  Interactive products must be designed to be equally intuitive and easy to use.  The starting point … the first screen(s) … must tell them what they are going to do, see or experience.  They need a balance of images and words that provide enough guidance to be useful but not overwhelming. They need to know exactly what the product is and where to find it. 

Image maps and visual metaphors can be used to get users oriented to your product (a visual metaphor is a special kind of image map that places images in a meaningful context by presenting information in terms of objects that are associated in the users' minds - i.e., various balls to represent the related sports played with them).  Checkpoints for finding the right visual metaphor:  
•	does it help viewers understand what to do?
•	is it appropriate for the content?
•	are there any parts of the content that clearly won't fit the metaphor?
•	does the metaphor create audience expectations that you can't meet?
NOTE:  a functional metaphor is also valuable; it creates an environment in which objects perform the functions that they depict (i.e., left/right arrows to depict back/forward navigation; ? for Questions, etc.)

Navigation:

The user's primary form of interaction in most products is navigating through content.  This means that much of what you do at the interaction design level is creating interfaces that help people understand where they are, where they can go, and how to get there.  

The main navigation screen is usually depicted on the 'home' page or opening screen.  Keep 'housekeeping' items (log ins, setting preferences, registration information, credits) off the main screen; separate content from overhead.

A good navigation design must:
•	minimize travel by creating the simplest and shortest path between any two points
•	minimize depth by creating a hierarchy with the fewest possible levels
•	minimize redundancy by avoiding multiple paths to the same place from the same screen (this causes confusion about which one to choose)

There are varying types of access methods you can use:
•	menus
•	lists
•	timelines
•	icons
•	buttons
•	maps

No matter which one(s) you use, they must provide consistent, intuitive access to other content.

There are two levels of access:
•	access to a new topic … going to a new topic usually means a change of scene
•	access within a topic … bringing up new material within the same topic should be subtle, designed to keep the user anchored and in control

NOTE:  avoid providing complete freedom of access with unlimited links; this can create confusion for users and design problems for you!

Usability:

Designing usability is not something you do once and never think about again.  It is an ongoing part of the design process.  An interface is intuitive only if it behaves the way people expect it to, and it can do that only if the designer anticipated the assumptions that users would make about the product's behaviours.  A great deal of design effort must go into anticipating, understanding, and managing the users' expectations , including the following:
•	a mouse click should take them somewhere or show them something
•	icons that they have seen somewhere else will do the same thing elsewhere

Guidelines for usability:
1.  Use common sense:
•	don’t add to the users' burden by making them 'learn' how to use the product
•	don't make them do things the product could do for itself (start video, play sounds) unless they need to control these (i.e. download considerations on the Web)
•	don't waste their time with elaborate features or multiple ways of doing things
2. Remove obstacles:
•	don't use elaborate guidance schemes and symbols
•	don't try to explain the process or direct the user's activities (unless they want you to)
•	let them click the things they want to find out more about
•	give them simple express routes to the information they are looking for
3.	Minimize effort:
•	keep related controls close together
•	put frequently used buttons in places that are easy to reach (in relation to other items on the screen)
4.	Give feedback:
•	provide a response to a user's actions (so they don't think the computer is 'doing nothing'); a 'click' sound for a mouse click or highlighting on selected items are good examples
5.	Be explicit:
•	make it obvious what is clickable and what isn't; objects that look like buttons should act like buttons, and images that have hot spots should have distinct markings
•	highlight text links; do not remove underlining from links on Web pages
6.	Be flexible:
•	users expect to be able to take shortcuts to information they want/need (skipping the things they've seen before)
•	users will want to leave things they aren't interested in (like video); make media elements interruptible
•	make it easy to quit the product at any time, from anywhere
7.	Be forgiving:
•	don't create conditions where the user has to 'do the right thing' before moving on (i.e., not letting them leave a screen until they choose the correct 'answer' to a question)
•	test each and every possible option a user might choose to ensure the reactions are consistent

Functionality:

Your storyboard must now become a functionality-driven focus point for building your product.  You must specify anything that has been vague to this point by re-examining earlier assumptions about content and what can be done with it, and to change the design until all problems are solved.  This involves looking at both the close-up view of individual controls as well as the big picture of how it all works together.  Designing functionality also means asking a lot of questions and testing different answers until you find the ones that work best.

Below are some elements to consider in he 'big picture' view.  Each element shown has to be considered at the level of individual screens, as well as at the level of the whole product.

Defining interaction controls:
defining not only WHAT happens on each screen, but HOW:  how users get there, how they leave, and all the actions they can take between. While specific controls for interaction are dictated by the immediate goals of each screen, the product's overall functionality should be developed as a system of well-integrated parts.

Solving organizational problems:
addressing the many inconsistencies inherent in the content: no body of information can be perfectly organized or uniformly distributed (no matter how hard you try!)  Every collection of data has a few things that are too long or too short, or that need special treatment, a different access route, etc.

Ensuring consistency:
this is all the ways a product behaves that makes the experience of using it more intuitive, and allows users to learn the fewest possible new behaviours.  For example, if one part offers the option to hear on-screen text read by a narrator, users will expect to find the same option when they move to a new topic.

Managing dependencies:
in any product there are dependencies created by relationships among different screens.  For example, the sequence in which screens are viewed is a dependency.  If a product's main menu were to display a checkmark to indicate each section the user had viewed already, the feature would affect later decisions about direct links between sections and how to whether or not to allow them to bypass the main menu.

Controlling media and custom features:
how the product controls text, images and sounds; how it performs any custom functions are all controls that affect how individual decisions define the functionality.

At the 'micro' view level, you must check the intuitiveness of each control.  Here are some common functionality design problems:

Content Exceptions: items that don't fit or don't work in context with the rest of the product, or topic
Status Confusion:  users shouldn't ask themselves 'Where am I?' or 'What mode am I in?'
Function Confusion:  buttons and icons should have obvious uses and should always be positioned in the same location on various screens (consistency)
Media Confusion:  provide common media controls (start, stop, pause, fast forward, rewind); include volume control (and mute) capabilities; allow for text scrolling, hyperlinks, and search capabilities (on large products/sites)

Integration:

At this stage, your storyboard is revised to include the navigation, functionality and timing elements that will be integrated into the product.  NOTE:  the storyboard is a communication tool that is used to instruct and direct everyone on your team, as well as your client, in how the product will perform.  It is modified and updated as long as the design process continues.