All designers aspire to engage and delight their users. Interaction Design, or IxD, seeks to create optimal conditions for engagement between people and products — both digital and physical.
Interaction Design focuses on “in the moment” interactions between a user and a product. The Professional Association for Design says that interaction designers create good connections. They link how a target audience sees a product's features, how the product works, and how users reach their goals.
Interaction Design (IxD) involves closely examining users’ needs, limitations, and contexts. The Interaction Design Foundation explains that the field empowers designers to customize the output to suit precise demands.
What is the difference between Interaction Design (IxD) and User Experience Design (UX)?
Experience Design (UX) addresses the entire user journey in acquiring and using information, products, and services. In a multidisciplinary practice, experience design may involve psychologists, anthropologists, computer programmers, and business experts, as well as communication, product, and architectural designers.
While UX design shapes the overall user experience, Interaction Design is one component of UX.
What are the five dimensions of Interaction Design?
Gillian Crampton Smith — a professor at London’s Royal College of Art — defined the five dimensions of Interaction Design. Senior interaction designer Kevin Silver later expanded upon these definitions.
Interaction designers apply all five dimensions to consider the interactions between a user and product/service. They help designers anticipate user needs before a company or product manager introduces a product.
- Words (1D): Text elements such as button labels that provide users with necessary information
- Visual Representations (2D): Graphical elements such as images, typography, and icons that support user interaction.
- Physical objects/space (3D): How users interact with a product, such as a laptop with a mouse or a mobile phone with touch controls.
- Time (4D): Dynamic media elements such as animations, videos, and sounds.
- Behavior (5D): How the previous four dimensions define the interactions a product affords. Behavior also refers to how the product reacts to user inputs and provides feedback.
