Interactive representation

This section describes the diverse experiences of users who use interactive representations, which depend on their technical backgrounds and affect their perceptions differently. According to Luppa (1998): “The user deserves and prefers an attractive look to their experience. As a general rule, the look should be designed to match the objective of the programme.” The same research offers an opinion on media designers by stipulating that they should be

significantly concerned with the objective of the project. They design media to convey messages and information, responding to project objectives that they have already planned. However, media users have different background knowledge and experience of media, as well as different perceptions. These differences present a challenge for this research, as they require adequate methods to support various stakeholders.

The need for users’ interaction with media is pushing designers to create interactive media that responds to users’ aspirations. In order to conceive a communication system that leads to the development of a mock-up, one needs to know about users’ actions and to predict their responses. The design of interface tools (icons, buttons and symbols) in such a system needs to be meaningful to clearly represent messages, information or functions. In addition,

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the interface design needs to be as intuitive as possible. Regarding interactive system design, Luppa (1998:71) states that the principles and tools of human interface design are advancing rapidly, and the best design allows interaction between users and given information. However, Lopes argues that the trouble with ‘interactivity’ is that the term is almost meaningless. It represents so many different things in several different situations and has little potential to suit all explanations (Lopes, 2009:36). This conclusion leads the researcher to

consider how to simplify the complexity of a web-based design communication tool. Luppa (1998:65–66) presents several design principles based on a

summary of those published in The Apple Human Guidelines:

- Simple design is an idea and good design must communicate and indicate what objects do, so that users can recognise them and navigate them.

- Users deserve and appreciate attractive surroundings.

- Consistency should be valued over individual cleverness.

- The transfer of skills is the most significant benefit of a reliable interface.

- The environment should appear to remain stable, understandable and familiar.

- There must be slight or no difference between what appears to users and what they receive.

- The user should control the action.

- The interface should stimulate the feeling that the user is involved.

- The user should be notified of what happens via message.

- The interface should use metaphors and these metaphors should be enhanced by audio and visual effects.

- Animation is one of the best ways to draw a user’s attention on the screen.

- A way out should always be provided.

These guiding principles will inform the design of the communication system and its mock-up being put forward by this research. However, for a specific application such as the communication system in architectural workflow, specific data from actual end users is required.

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According to Luppa (1998), there are guidelines that the designer should consider when producing media. Web designers develop interfaces to be user friendly, so everyone can easily use the platform. For example, Facebook has a simple interface, which uses plain colours to indicate the way information is organised, as its users include people of different ages and cultures. Nerby (2013) states that Facebook started with an understanding of user behaviour to create a means for people to connect with each other for different reasons. By systematically studying user behaviours, Facebook designers thereby created a powerful experience. In the present research, the central idea for the

communication system is conceived around the consideration of users’

backgrounds, including their requirements as a key point; from this information, a mock-up is designed. In fact, user background plays a role in all areas of design. A designer has to investigate the nature of users depending on a project. In addition, the research explores human–computer interaction (HCI), which strongly focuses on the user interface. In general, the interface

determines what is possible for the user to achieve from the computer system.

Norman (2013) explains the interaction design principles of HCI as follows:

Visibility – Users will be able to exactly predict what step should come next, if the functions are greatly visible. In contrast, when functions are invisible, it makes their use more complicated.

Feedback – Feedback is about sending back audio, tactile and verbal information. Combinations of these forms of information can represent feedback on what action has been done and what has been accomplished. Feedback can also be used to encourage the user to continue with the activity.

Constraints – The conceptual design of constraining refers to determining behaviours of interactive restriction. There are various ways this can be achieved.

Mapping – An example of mapping between control and effect is the up and down arrows on the computer keyboard being used to represent the corresponding up and down movement of the cursor.

Consistency – Consistency refers to designing interfaces, which are consistent and use the same elements for carrying out similar tasks. A

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consistent interface is necessary so that whatever environment the icon needs for an operation is clear.

Affordance – Affordance refers to an attribute of an object that indicates to people how to use it. For example, a mouse button cues even a novice user to click it, so it is intuitive. At a simple level, affordance means ‘to give a clue’. It is easy to know how to interact with a physical object when its affordances are perceptually obvious.

This section has introduced the principles of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, thereby addressing HCI. The guiding principles for the communication system and interface design of the mock-up have thus been identified.