Brief History of Interactive Design

Basic structure and some info acquired from ‘Interaction Design History in a teeny little nutshell’ by Marc Rettig, 2004.

• Operating the Machine

Timeline

IBM System 360

Pre-Computer: Operating the Machine

• The term ‘interaction design’ came about when there were actual interfaces to design, i.e. after computers.

• Before there was ‘interaction design’ individuals who worked with interactive machines focused on ‘operating the machine’.

Operating the Machine

• The emphasis was on engineering design• People had to adapt and speak the

language of machines.• Designers were not really important at

this point since the communication involved was mainly worker+machine.

• Essentially the worker was considered to be yet another component in a system of production.

Eniac, 1946

• The ENIAC was a modular computer, composed of individual panels to perform different functions. Twenty of these modules were accumulators, which could not only add and subtract but hold a ten-digit decimal number in memory.

• Numbers were passed between these units across a number of general-purpose buses, or trays, as they were called.

• In order to achieve its high speed, the panels had to send and receive numbers, compute, save the answer, and trigger the next operation—all without any moving parts.

• Key to its versatility was the ability to branch; it could trigger different operations that depended on the sign of a computed result. (Wikipedia, 2011)

MITS Altair 8800, 1975

• The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold by mail order through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines.

• The designers hoped to sell only a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month.[1] The Altair also appealed to individuals and businesses who just wanted a computer and purchased the assembled version.

The Mouse: Doug Englebart 1964

Douglas Carl Engelbart (born January 30, 1925) is an American inventor, and an early computer and internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on the challenges of human-computer interaction, resulting in the invention of the computer mouse, (Wikipedia, 2011)

A Human-centered point of view.

Sketchpad, Ivan Sutherland, 1963

Sketchpad is considered to be the ancestor of modern computer-aided drafting (CAD) programs as well as a major breakthrough in the development of computer graphics in general.

Sketchpad – Augmenting the human intellect

• A light pen is attached to directly point to the screen. The position is tracked whilst the light pen is moving. A termination flick event is created when the pen is abruptly moved away from screen. The second hand is used to press command buttons. A box holds about 40 buttons that correspond to operations like DRAW, MOVE and DELETE.

• Sutherland explains how to draw a line with Sketchpad: If we point the light pen at the display system and press a button called “draw,” the computer will construct a straight line segment which stretches like a rubber band from the initial to the present location of the pen. A sudden flick of the pen terminates drawing . (mprove, 2011)

Timeline

• Operating the Machine• Using the Software

Visicalc

Using the software

• Rather than turning switches on and off, people could now use software; applications and tools.

• Design was still in the hands of engineers – at this point aesthetics were secondary to engineering.

A few examples:

• Visicalc, 1979 by Dan Bricklin: The first spreadsheet.

• Wordstar, 1979 by Seymour Rubenstein & John Barnaby: Creating, storing and editing Word Documents.

Timeline

• Operating the Machine• Using the Software• Performing a Task

Performing a Task

• The Focus was shifting towards ‘People performing a Task’ rather than simply controlling a tool.

• Companies started to emphasise:– Ease of Learning– Ease of Use– Reduced Errors– Saved Time

The 1984 Macintosh Superbowl ad

1984

• '1984' the commercial is based around one of the Two Minute Hate scenes, in which Apples case, the young woman in red shorts is suggesting Apple Macintosh will give people freedom in computing like never before (IBM was the main competitor at the time).

• The crowd of emotionless people are the members of the Big Brother society, taking in all the propaganda. The old chap in the large screen is Big Brother.

The software design manifesto, Mitch Kapor 1990

• “Firmness: A program should not have any bugs which inhibits its function.

• Commodity: A program should be suitable for the purposes for which it was intended.

• Delight: The experience of using the program should be a pleasurable one.

• Here we have the beginnings of a theory of design for software”.

Timeline• Operating the Machine• Using the Software• Performing a Task• Experience

Experience

• Computers are no longer just about people performing tasks, but have become a spatial environment for individuals to live, learn, work and play.

Art and Engineering

• Artist / Engineer: Making something interesting happen on screen.

• Interface Design: Understanding and communicating with the person in front of the screen.

• Designing for the person using the screen means getting to know about them;

• Where is their attention focused• What happens before and after• What their goals are.

Timeline

• Operating the Machine• Using the Software• Performing a Task• Experience• Connect

Connect

• Rather than being concerned with past tools and objects to experience, the main focus is now to learn new ways to connect people together.

• The machines are starting to fade into the background to make space for what is between people, through machines.

• People can now build things together through the machines. The construction is in the foreground, not the technology.

Timeline

• Operating the Machine• Using the Software• Performing a Task• Experience• Dynamically enable

Dynamically enable

• From: we adapt to the machines • To: Our environment and tools adapt

to us as we move through life.• Example: standard formats, ease of

sharing, invisible transition of technology in everyday life.

• Although dynamic technology could bring pleasure, health, growth and knowledge to some, it might also bring confusion, division, annoyance and oppression.

• Therefore be prepared for ample prototyping, negative side effects, collaboration, and continuous redesign, discovery and exploration.