Interaction Design

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Why interaction design?: Interaction design creates a representation of the user interface for a product, website, or service. The design shows the behavior of the user interface but is lightweight to support quick fixes in response to user and stakeholder feedback. The purpose of interaction designs is for communicating design intent and eliciting feedback for design improvement, before actual coding takes place.
What is interaction design?: Interaction design is creating a visual model of the way an application behaves in response to user action or input. It also shows how functionality is presented and labeled, including user interface widgets, screen layout, and screen flow. The representation can be low-fidelity—for example, a storyboard or sketch—or higher fidelity, such as a detailed interactive screen mockup.
What does it take?: Inputs from user research—user-centered interaction design is informed by user profiles, requirements, tasks, and goals.; Experience with tools to create fast, iterative designs—Skilled designers choose the tool that will best communicate the design yet allow quick revisions.; Knowledge of standards and constraints—Interaction designs must ultimately conform to commonly accepted user interface, usability, and accessibility standards as well as platform constraints.