What is so cool about interaction design

Recently, the company I work for acquired a user experience design firm. They are a group of folks that I have known for a while and with which we have successfully completed many projects.

Although it is not a corporate objective for me, I decided to make it my personal mission to better understand what it is they did. I had a pretty good idea of what that was but I needed something concrete. Walking through a bookstore this weekend I stumbled on About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design and immediately started devouring it. After a few chapters, I am starting to understand.

For a guy like me who has been in the software industry for over 10 years now. This book is a great eye opener. For once, it is us (the software guys) who are made to feel like idiots instead of the users. Most of what we've been doing when interacting with users is wrong.

The book describes the basis of "Goal-Directed design". How a good interaction designer will create a design that helps the user achieve its goals. Throughout the course of the book, you learn about some design axioms like:

• Nobody wants to remain a beginner
• Imagine the user as very intelligent but very busy
• Don't make the user feel stupid
• Design for the probable case; provide for the possible case
• Ask forgiveness, not permission
• Disks and files don't help users achieve their goals

And a whole whack more.

This book is not about turning people into interactive design practitioners. It is about understanding the value of good design. I would definitely recommend it to anyone involved in the creation of software.