2. This talk focuses on...
● My background in interaction design
● What interaction design is
● How interaction design can be applied to physical
interfaces, not just software ones
● Teensy microcontroller demo that uses a pressure
sensor to control mouse movements on the
computer screen
@argoncobalt
3. Hullo. I’m Ariel Cotton.
● Artist who makes comics, interactive & figurative art
● Toy inventor
● Interaction designer
● Merges art, design & technology to create
emotionally engaging and novel experiences
● Lives and dies by being interdisciplinary
@argoncobalt
17. Interaction design is...
● what defines the behavior of an interactive product
● shaping digital things for people’s use
● designing the experience of how users interact with
an object or device, especially in the digital world.
● making digital things as user-friendly as possible
● a relatively new discipline
@argoncobalt
25. How do you… (a) do; (b) feel; (c) know?
@argoncobalt
26. Isn’t interaction design more or less the same thing as
user interface design, user experience design, human-computer
interaction, web design, product design,
industrial design or visual design?
@argoncobalt
42. If they didn’t, then the sub-menu would disappear.
@argoncobalt
43. No, it’s not voodoo. It’s merely a triangle.
@argoncobalt
44. Usability
The user interface should be usable and easy to
understand. (Well no, duh...)
@argoncobalt
45. Being intuitive
Even if the user has never seen a product like yours
before, navigating the user interface should still come
fairly naturally to him or her.
@argoncobalt
46. Learnability
In cases where the solution to your design problem calls
for an extremely unique interface, the user should still be
able to internalize it with relative ease.
@argoncobalt
51. A couple more points about
interaction design...
@argoncobalt
52. Being interdisciplinary
● Many art, design and tech fields are more
interconnected than people think, and they use
similar principles.
● I use principles of interaction design in almost all my
work, be it art, inventing or web design.
● Ultimately anything that follows the principles I
mentioned is a piece of interaction design.
@argoncobalt
53. Design as a way of life
● I see everything in life as a design problem waiting to
be solved.
● I scrutinize all my surroundings with the same critical
eye I use when I’m designing something or critiquing
another person’s design.
● Interaction design deals primarily with software
interfaces, but in order to be a good interaction
designer, you need to notice how everybody interacts
with everything.
@argoncobalt
54. Everywhere you look you’ll see examples of
interface, layout, and color decision-making.
@argoncobalt
55. I take walks through Gowanus and get inspired by
the old-school typography on all the signs.
@argoncobalt
64. Farewell
If you have any questions about Arduino, interaction
design or anything else I’ve discussed, or you’re interested
in keeping up with my work, feel free to find me on Twitter
@argoncobalt or look up my website, www.electricstud.io.
@argoncobalt
