History of Interaction Design

Examines key thought leaders in interaction design, their innovations, and the technology and business contexts that shaped the environment for their work.

We will identify important technologies and innovations for human/computer interaction and seek to forecast their future capabilities. We will review and assess successful and failed designs to better understand the elements that led to significant design breakthroughs. The course will cover specific interaction metaphors and discuss the merits and constraints of each including: Command lines, Text Editors, WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing), Direct Manipulation interfaces, Gesture, Touch, Multi-touch, Voice Interaction, and other affordances.

Learning Objectives

Students will gain experience in identifying use problems or opportunity areas that are affected by social and technological trends. They will be able to identify baseline events and map important progress events. They will be able to create representations suitable for environmental scans and offering trend lines. They will examine the importance of ecosystem elements that frame user acceptance and commercial success.

Learning Outcomes

After concluding this course, the student will have gained perspective on the field on interaction design, be able to identify key thought leaders, and explain the innovations and circumstances that led to important progress for interaction design. Also, they will have gained an understanding of emerging design and technology trends that will help them identify the potential for future design breakthroughs.