The
"Interactive Design Media" field defines how interactive systems are
made and interacted with. Interactive designers make the strong bonding
connections between people and their products and services your group
provides. These products range from computers, mobile devices and
household appliances. The Interactive design field is constantly growing
with the world as its technology evolves.
Practitioners
in the Interactive Design field produce a wide variety of products such as what
I listed previously. These products are still rapidly changing and the
platforms they appear on are changing even faster. Practitioners are always trying to figure out who
cares about their products. They
need to know who their users will be and what methods to use to appeal to them. If you design a product towards a
certain age group or type of person that is not right for the product then the
product wont sell well no matter how much advertizing you do for it. You have to design your product around
the users so that you can get them interested in the product as well as willing
to purchase or use it. Then the
designer has to ask themselves “so what?”
They have to think how the public will find out about your product as
well as how the public will feel towards your product. The designer has to think about how the
app is going to make money. The
two major ways applications and sites make money; free to download with
advertisements as well as an one time cost without advertisements.
The
main questions that practitioners in Interactive Design Media ask themselves is
where technology is going in terms of coding, devices, interests and
competition. Coding languages are
coming out faster and the designer has to decide which to use from what code
they know as well as what they can do with that code. They also have to think about what device they are coding
for and what operating system they use on that platform. As well as the coding for a device the
designer also has to ask himself how the product will look on the varied sized
screens of the multiple platforms it will be on (if it is on multiple
platforms). Another thing
designers have to worry about is how much interest the general public has in
the product your working on. The
designer has to take into consideration how many similar products there are on
the market and if the product will be able to compete with what is out already.
The
goals in the Interactive Design Media profession are in a nutshell to create
something that no one has thought of yet or to greatly improve something that
is outdated. Not everyone shares
the same common goals though.
Because the profession is branching out into so many different things
everyone has their own niche that they specialize in and have their own goals
revolving around that.
Practitioners meet their goals by working in groups to push out the
product with speed to beat other groups that might be working on something
similar. One goal might be to
create the new standard in the layout of websites. This would change how we use the Internet on computers, cell
phones, tablets, and even gaming consoles. As more devices become touch screen the interfaces have to
adhere to the limited space and the users finger to select instead of something
as small as a mouse curser.
Work cited:
Work cited:
"Interaction Design Association - Homepage." Interaction Design Association. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ixda.org/>.
Interaction Design. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. <http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/>.
"Interactive Design." Graphic Design Inspiration, Design Jobs, Design Business & Design Career Advice. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. <http://www.howdesign.com/design-competitions/interactive-design-awards/>.
"Interaction Design." Blog. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. <http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/10/20-cool-interaction-design-concepts/>.
