Part IV: Interaction Design
The first three parts of this book are largely dedicated to the nuts and bolts of design—how to create attractive, elegant software. The techniques I’ve illustrated are the building blocks of a process that I hope you find as useful as I have. However, more important than any typeface, color swatch, or wireframe is this: Software is for people, and people use software because it solves problems and makes their lives easier.
You can have the greatest typography and richest color palettes in the world, but that won’t matter if your apps don’t “feel right.” So, how can you make all those bits feel like anything? By feel, I mean much of what constitutes an application’s feel is invisible.
Designing software that is both approachable for a first-time user and transparent to an advanced user happens only if you have a deep understanding of the app’s purpose. Interaction design is at the heart of creating thoughtful mechanisms for interacting with a product and is largely responsible for creating an application’s feel.
In the final chapters of this book, I discuss several important interaction design principles and concepts, including:
• Understanding the role of psychology in interaction design
• Accommodating advanced and novice users
• Designing for good mental and physical ergonomics
• Understanding what it means to create an “invisible” user experience
• Creating good interactions
