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The Principles of Interactive Design 1999 225 pages Complementary Texts Keywords Copyright © 2000-2007 Isabel Pedersen |
The Principles of Interactive Design moves the
reader through the entire design process, but it stops to expand on specific
aspects in areas that need more attention. This work is much more practical
and less theoretical than Domenic Stansberry’s Labyrinths: The Art of
Interactive Writing and Design, for example; Stansberry
reflects on metaphor, narrative and expository structures and the rhetoric of
interactivity alongside practical advice. Graham is more likely give direct,
practical instruction. Even definitions of terms occur in context in bold
print, rather than appearing set off from the text. The text covers a great deal. She provides a good synopsis of the design process. She concentrates on project planning, researching for the project and Audience analysis. She analyzes flowcharting, storyboarding and content lists. Graham introduces you to navigation controls and the interactive functions of the initial screens of a multimodal interface. She discusses layout and colour all with many real examples of actual multimedia projects. She covers issues that pertain specifically to text, graphics, sounds, animation, video and virtual reality and the mixing of this media. Graham goes beyond expectations, to a certain degree, when she includes point-form notes for the construction of a virtual reality application. Even though this media is very difficult and expensive to construct, she does not dismiss it as inapplicable to interactive design. This position makes virtual reality seem more attainable for the average designer; there are many texts devoted to virtual reality designers, but they seem to be elitist to a certain extent. Also virtual reality is highly influential and interface design in general draws from it. When constructing a virtual reality module, one must heed these principles (182-186): · Engage as many human senses as possible · Provide an avatar for the user · Let the user do something · Provide orientational clues · establish a virtual horizon · include plenty of depth cues · use metaphors to help the user adjust to the virtual world · Create an acoustic 3D space with high-quality sound Overall, her book is an excellent introduction to the design process. She moves quickly through the information where others tend to get bogged down with definitions and endless exceptions to the rule. |