Frameworks

This is a partial summary of Chapter 7 "Refinement" of Dan Saffer's book "Designing for interaction, 2nd edition".

Frameworks

"Every product needs a framework: an actual or metaphysical structure that defines the product and integrates the content and functionality into a unified whole." There are three main kinds of frameworks that can be applied to a product:

  1. Metaphor.
    A way for users to understand abstract concepts (ex: GUI, dashboards and control panels)
  2. Postures.
    Common types of structures for the design of software (called by Alan Cooper):
    1. Sovereign: for complex, large and that take up a large portion of the screen when in use (ex: Ms. Word).
    2. Transient: for temporary and light applications that use only a small amount of screen estate (ex: installers, widgets, calc)
    3. Daemonic: for the ones that mostly run in the background (ex: anti-viruses, Growl). The controls are mostly limited to setup and configurations.
    4. Parasitic: for applications that supplements another application or service. (ex: Tweet-Deck)
  3. Structure.
    Layout of panels in the application, interplay between hardware and software. Methods to determine the structure:
    1. Functional Cartography: determine the location of functional pieces of the product. Designers need to decide on if the controls for the functionality are analog (ex: physical buttons), digital (onscreen controls) or a hybrid (ex: soft keys). It should be documented in order to help designers with sketching, modeling and prototyping. Factors considered when deciding on the cartography:
      • Context: where and when will the functionality be used?
      • Priority: how important is this functionality?
      • Cost: how much is it gonna cost?
      • Ergonomics: what is the easiest to use for the users?
      • Aesthetics: does it match the overal design?
      • Tangibility: how tactile does it need to be?
    2. Site / Screen / State Maps: determine how the pieces of functionality flow and how users navigates between them (ex: site maps on the web - accessed by hyperlinks) in order to unify the product.
      • The organization of the content is the discipline of Information Organization.
      • State - particular moment in the interaction:
        1. Initiation: default state - how does it look like, what to do in order to change it?
        2. Activation: what happens during the action (ex: while the item is dragged)
        3. Updates: state after the user finished an action.
      • Mode - general condition that allows for different functionality / states to be accessed. (ex: "editing" mode)

References and further readings