Understanding Interactive Design
by
Randy Mears
With a good user interface (and interactive design), complex digital technologies can be made useful without excessive training and practice sessions. Without a good interactive design, a new product can face an uphill battle, or even failure, in the marketplace. This Newsweek interview with industrial designer Bill Moggridge, though short, has a few interesting examples and insights into the importance of this topic when it comes to modern technologies maturing into successful consumer products.
A bad interactive design can doom a product while a superior design may mean market leadership, at least temporarily. In the consumer arena, breakthroughs at the interactive design level may be the primary ingredient in overall product differentiation. As an example, in the case of the iPod, breakthrough interactive design (including iTunes) has led to market dominance.
Apple is now in the news for its next big thing, and it seems big on interactive design breakthroughs. As for their future success with this product, only time will tell, but they have been very busy.
