In the past, we could often draw a clean line between hardware
and software. As that line blurs, both Industrial and Interaction
Design will need to combine their expertise. In the 1990s the
emergence of the web led designers to develop new interaction
patterns for an entirely new medium. A similar definition of best
practices for connected devices will need to occur, but this time
the process can be more integrative, drawing from knowledge
embedded in both disciplines. The principles that have informed
and defined Industrial Design for the last century are a good
starting point for Interaction Designers to find new ways of
approaching, framing, and evaluating their work.
The ten principles in this book represent ways that Industrial
Designers have approached design problems across a diverse
array of industries and eras. Each principle is explained and
situated within Industrial Design history, and then reframed for a
modern Interaction Design context. The chapters can be read in
any order, so you can return to and review relevant principles
when starting a new project.
The goal is not that Interaction Designers should all become
Industrial Designers, or vise versa, but that these two design
disciplines should find an overlap of skills and approaches
appropriate to a world where the traditional distinctions between
physical and virtual are increasingly blurred.