Interaction design involves creating systems that work for people.

• discovering requirements
• defining needs
• ideating possible solutions
• producing prototypes
• evaluating systems

1. Discover: understand the problem and the people affected
2. Define: define the problem clearly so that it can be addressed
3. Develop: create ideas, prototypes, sketches, etc, that might address the problem
4. Deliver: test potential solutions to find promising directions, and iterate

• Personas: limited/no real users, “fake” user personas to help frame design
• Face-to-face: small groups or individuals in information-gathering or evaluation settings¹
• Crowd-sourced: large surveys, crowd-sourcing, community engagement
• Participatory: users central to planning, ideating, prototyping (co-design, co-creation)

Expanding from “users” to “people” with more details (Rogers et al., 2023)

• tasks and goals drive development
• behaviour and context of use are studied
• people’s characteristics included
• stakeholders are consulted throughout development
• design decisions consider context of use, people’s activities, and their environment

Design and HCI related but not the same:

• Discover and Define stages are highly related to “uncovers the needs of different kinds of computer users” (from week 1)
• Develop and Deliver are more related to “proposes computer systems (incl. software) that can be better used by humans”

Some HCI research is technical or speculative, inventing technologies that are not yet common or popular

“A statement about an intended product that specifies what it is expected to do and how it will perform” (Rogers et al., 2023, p. 387)

• Discovered through targeted activities or tangentially throughout the design process
• Evolve during design
• Different levels of abstraction and detail
• Needed to avoid misunderstanding and miscommunication

• Requirements can be captured casually, e.g., “app needs to be fast”
• Can be useful to have more details, precision about the requirements, who needs them, and why.
• Formal methods exist for capturing requirements in complex projects
• Epics, user stories in Agile methodologies
• Volere “Atomic Requirements Shell” (see figure)
• “Description, Rationale, Source, Fit criterion, Customer satisfaction…”

More detailed than a user story, includes:

• the person, their characteristics, motivations, etc (persona)
• their story, when, where, how, as a sequence of events (scenario)
• the goal, needs to fulfil, reason to interact with a system (goal)

• Rich descriptions of typical users
• Don’t describe specific people but realistic
• Describe goals, behaviours, activities, environment
• How would this person use this product?

Examples on Usability.gov

• A narrative describing human activities or tasks.
• Allows exploration and discussion of contexts, needs, and requirements.
• Doesn’t necessarily describe the software/technology used
• Core: goal, steps to reach the goal, who the user is (persona)
• Extra: other details that might be useful.

• “Nia is a sound designer working in the automotive industry.”
• “When tasked with creating sound signals for automotive applications, Nia needs to consider the cognitive flow of users, particularly how different chords interact and influence user attention. To support this logic-making process, Nia uses an AI-powered tool that helps her design a storyboard, select suitable chords, and assign them to the relevant phases.”
• “After establishing the storyboard, Nia transitions to another MIDI software via the tool’s connected API for sound creation and refinement.”

Example scenario excerpt from Minsik Choi’s ANU research (Choi et al., 2025).

Scenario mapping is a group activity for generating ideas for a product or system using personas and a specific scenario. (PS: you’ll do a similar activity in next week’s tutorial).

• choose a scenario and persona,
• split a scenario up into steps (use sticky notes)
• choose categories for ideas, e.g.: design ideas, questions, problems, friction points, comments
• brainstorm ideas under specific categories

🗺️💁🏻🎤

• Let’s scenario map.

• Have a look at the following miro board and add a post it. (how many students are here? can we break miro?)

• https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVJa-m2gU=/?share_link_id=689171092569

• ideas are not evaluated
• ideas are recorded and documented
• collaboration leads to diverse ideas

Generating many ideas: high probability that at least one is close to ideal.

Ideation for Everyday Design Challenges, nngroup

1. Brainstorm
2. Braindump
3. Brainwrite
4. Brainwalk
5. Worst possible idea
6. Challenge Assumptions
7. Mindmap
8. Sketch
9. Storyboard
10. Bodystorm

11. Analogies
12. Provocation
13. SCAMPER
14. Movement
15. Gamestorming
16. Cheatstorm
17. Crowdstorm
18. Co-creation
19. Prototype
20. Creative pause

• Brainwrite: write ideas individually
• then pass ideas to someone else
• elaborate on the first person’s ideas
• then pass to the next person etc
• after 15 minutes discuss
• Brainwalk: walk around “ideation stations”

• Flip brainstorming
• Come up with the worst ideas you can think of
• Playful, fun, adventurous, effective
• Know that ideas won’t be scrutinised for being wrong

• graphical technique
• build a web of relationships
• write a problem statement in the middle
• write solutions and ideas on the same page
• connect solutions and ideas with lines

• useful to express ideas as diagrams or sketches
• visuals can provoke further ideas
• sketches should be simple and rough
• enough detail to convey meaning
• but not supposed to be amazing
• think openly and creatively about ideas
• quantity over quality
• easier to discuss, critique, share ideas

• stories for communication, learning, exploring
• storyboard is a visual story
• can add details, show time progression
• understand people’s lives and draw out stories
• research: scenarios with pictures and user quotes
• ideation: play with ideas, develop storyline, actors, plot
• tension, surprises, emotions, struggle, resolution

• physically acting out processes, scenarios
• express solutions to ideas through physical activity
• enact problem scenarios
• get physically involved in theorising
• combines empathy, brainstorming, prototyping
• increased energy and movement
• could include a space with props

• Analogies: comparison between two things
• Powerful tool for communication and sparking ideas
• Express complex ideas clearly
• Provocation: lateral thinking technique
• challenges the status quo, explore new realities

• Help if blocked in idea generation
• Follows on from lateral thinking techniques
• Might not result in concrete/usable ideas
• Create a range of thinking stimuli
• Making use of stimuli requires movement
• Movement is a process to turn provocation into usable ideas
• https://thoughtegg.com/provocations-creative-technique/

• Combines different methods over hours, days, or weeks
• Can be condensed into full day workshops
• Full day workshops usually follow a sequence like:
• Introductions and Icebreakers, Vision and Values Exercises, Empathy Exercises, Insight Mining, Challenge Framing, Ideation, Prototyping

• Prototyping can be an ideation technique
• Creating a physical object requires decisions to be made
• Encourages generation of new ideas
• Explore alternative solutions
• Building to think, thinking by doing

• ideation can get stuck.
• block of ideas, hit a wall,
• anchored to an early idea
• caught up in negative thoughts
• creative pause: step back, reflect, extract ourselves
• proactive thinking, not reactive (can be negative)