Designing for the Internet of Things

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groundbreaking design foundations pedagogy at Carnegie Tech.^6 Dave
Malouf presented an initial set of interaction design foundations in
an article for Boxes and Arrows in 2007 ,^7 and then expanded upon
it in a presentation at Interaction’ 09. He includes elements of time,
abstraction, metaphor, negativity, and motion in his set of expanded
foundations.
The things we design now are beyond screens and objects and we are
challenged to think of the next set of foundations for designing these
systems. We can begin to draw inspiration and knowledge from cyber-
netics, soft systems theory, and urbanism along with more commonly
referenced practices such as architecture and anthropology.
When working with invisible technology and systems that cannot be
observed easily, visualizations become even more important. Often,
the only way that a system and all of its interactions and decisions can
be understood is through illustrations and narratives that look at the
impact as well as the cause of each part of the interaction.
As we examine these systems we should pay special attention to the
qualities, aesthetics, of the elements of the system. A set of aesthet-
ics qualities of a system includes new foundational elements that
build upon traditional design foundations and Malouf’s interaction
foundations.
Tex t u re
What is the connectivity of the system? How do the pieces interact with
one another, both human and nonhuman? The texture of the network
is what we think about when we look at how easy it is to interface with
its different parts. If the connections are obvious and accessible, we
might describe the interface as smooth; if the connection points are
difficult or confusing, that could be described as rough.
The notion of texture can be applied to graphical interfaces, gestural
or spatial interfaces, hardware controls, and APIs alike, among other
things. How might one describe the qualities of their bank’s system?
6 Hannah, Gail Greet. 2002. Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and The Structure of
Visual Relationships, Princeton Architectural Press.
7 Malouf, Dave. 2007. Foundations of Interaction Design. Boxes and Arrows, http://
boxesandarrows.com/foundations-of-interaction-design/.