Reading seminar 2

For our second reading seminar we read three chapters: Ideation and Design Principles, Refinement and Prototyping, Testing, and Development.

The first chapter covers how to create ideas and how to value them.
For the first there are some easy methods. To start the process you can use mind maps or association games.
Afterwards you do structured brain storming by using Personas, Process Moments and Pain Points.
Out of those design principles can be created, which should be memorable, specific and cross-fitting.

Second chapter is about how to get details fitting to constraints. There are several principles of interaction design that have be contributed to.
Just to name important ones: Standard, The Poka-Yoke Principle, Tesler’s Law of the Conservation of Complexity and The Magical Number Seven.
It is important to document and use methods of refinement such as scenarios, use cases as well as sketches and models.

The last chapter can be divided into three steps. The first one is Prototyping. Hereby you start with Interface Design.
Then you can build low-fidelity prototypes as for instance paper prototypes.
They base on Wizard of Oz manipulation to appear interactive. Out of those first tries high-fidelity prototypes are build, which require much more time and ressources.
The next step is testing. In the user testing phase you are observing a user using the prototype, which is evaluated by testing protocols and opportunity reports.
Besides an heuristic evaluation can be done by applying common questions.
The last step is developing, which can be summed up as troubleshooting.