UX and Ergonomics

Hearing about UX and how people interact with technology harks back to my days in Industrial Design. The backbone of Industrial Design itself is Ergonomics. We learned, especially at the time in the early 1990s, as computers were becoming more available in homes and businesses, how people interacted with technology.

​In our Industrial Design course, on of the realizations we had was that audio feedback was needed as people were using ABMs.  For example, if a person using an ABM didn't have the audio cue that they actually touched that button in front of them they wouldn't know if they really pressed it correctly.  I have felt this confusion myself when I was using technology with the sound off. It is very unnerving. This and other usability concepts later helped me as I developed screen designs for kiosks and websites. On the low tech side it also helped me understand how to better design printed items.

Using the technique of story boarding, as shown in the graphic at the top of this post,  is  something I still strongly believe in. As I started designing websites in the mid 1990s, story boarding was key to figure out how many pages were needed and how the navigation would work. Again, story boarding is helpful with print design as well. I guess graphic designers would call these thumbnails. 

Now we are looking beyond websites and figuring how humans interact with cell phones, tablets, and whatever new communication tools that will show up in the future. These are very exciting times, in my opinion, when it comes to design. As long there is people and technology, UX and Ergonomics will always be paramount in the design mix. 
I found a wonderful website called Designing for Humans:
 http://www.designingforhumans.com/idsa/2009/01/ergonomics-for-interaction-designers-part-1.html

For more information about me go to www.sylverdesign.com

Cheers!

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