Wednesday, October 8th, 2008, 1220 days ago

Thoughtful interaction design

There is no question that usability is central concept in the field of Human-Computer interaction(HCI). One of the main goals of the field is to contribute to the development of more usable digital artifacts; historically, it is easy to demonstrate how the meaning of the usability concept has shifted quite significantly over its relatively shot life time.

Even though we cannot address the whole design history of the field of digital artifacts, there are some interesting lines of development that provide a deep understanding of our intellectual tradition. Human-computer Interaction(HCI) and the Scandinavian school of systems development are the two fields that we find most relevant; they are both focused strong on the use qualities of digital artifacts, and they exhibit interesting similarities over time.

[Quatuoed from the book of 'thoughtfull interaction design']