Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.1:
An interaction pattern analysis of a website showing the primary components of the screen.
Interaction design patterns define how function might be presented, the structure of
the pages, access to content on the pages, and navigation across pages. These interaction
design patterns give the team a way to think structurally about the design they are creating
without getting caught up in lower-level and graphical details. This step ensures that the
design team stops to think about what constitutes a modern design and what techniques
and trends of interaction design are important to their situation. Seeing how others have
approached designs similar to their own product concept widens the team's vision of what
ispossible—especially whentheylooktootherdomainsandtypesofproducts.Itenhances
the team's knowledge of interaction design materials. This is not mere copying: this ana-
lysisjump-startsthedesigners'owncreativitybygivingthemasetofoptionsandastarting
point. And since most designers are visual thinkers, having such a visual representation is
an important aid to creativity.
To generate these preliminary interaction design patterns, the team starts with the
sketches of the product concepts from the Cool Drilldown. While these sketches will not
define all function and every page, the central areas and most important function to be de-
signedwillberepresented.Thesearetheplacesandinteractionstheteamhastothinkabout
and define interaction patters for.
The team then explores how other products have approached similar problems. They
deliberately choose sites and products that will challenge their entering assumptions about
howsuchaninterface shouldbestructured. Businessapplications canbenefitfromlooking
at consumer products for hints on creating modern interfaces.
For modern interface design, materials include design elements such as carousels that
show lots of information in a small space, responsive nav bars that orient the user as well
as showing available options, buttons that appear and overlay content only when needed,
and teaser content that expands in place to show a full article, to name just a few. Such
interaction elements have come to be expected by users and must be at the designers' fin-
gertips so that they can be incorporated into a design. But interaction design technologies
and industry trends advance and change. Continuously re-familiarizing a team with mod-
