Interaction DesignResearch to Industry

Peter Reid

Overview

• Masters research at The University of Auckland 2008

• Interaction Design at Orion Health 2009

• From research to industry

Masters Research 2008

Advantages of doing a Masters

• Supervisors are plugged into the field• Finally - a chance to apply the skills

learned during undergraduate years• Develop the ability to communicate

and work with ideas

Masters Topic

• A Multimodal Collaborative Handwriting Training System for Visually Impaired Students

Two main strands

• Enhancements: make changes to an existing system

• Longitudinal Study: test it out with three visually impaired students

Enhancements

• Understand handwriting literature• Participatory design with a visually

impaired adult• Cognitive Dimensions evaluation

top lineascender

base line

descenderbody of the letter

x-height line

Spatial features of letters. Adapted from Taylor (2001)

Longitudinal Study

• Some promising results• Signing a signature is still a difficult task

for visually impaired students

Before

After

May’s Signature

Personal Highlights

• Developing skills – writing, thinking• Meeting new people – school staff,

students, families. Truly worthwhile• Learning to work in a team –

research group

OZCHI 2008

• Cairns, December 2008• Inspiration• Session on Health Interaction Design• Meeting people working on various

HCI projects

Interaction Design at Orion Health

2009

Introducing Orion Health Limited:

• A New Zealand company• Specialist in integration for Healthcare• Mission: ‘Provide Universal Access to Patient information’• Founded in 1993. 11 years of integration experience.• Offices in US (CA, MD), Canada (Edmonton), UK (London, Birmingham), Australia and a development centre in Auckland.

Concerto

Clinical Design Team

• 8 people in Auckland, 2 overseas– Team leader– 2 Clinical Consultants – Nursing

Background– 2 Clinical Staff, both Doctors – Spain and

US– 5 Interaction Designers (3 Senior)

Interaction Design

• A relatively new field• Heated discussion on the web on

best techniques• Plenty of books• Some activity in NZ, but not much

Team Priorities

• Understanding user goals and the domain

• Elegant designs

Understanding user goals and the domain

• Interviews - Clinicians• Observation – Hospitals• Working with clinical staff

Designing a solution

Lo-fi Mockups Balsamiq

Hi-fi Mockups Fireworks

Final Product

•Usability Testing

•Creativity / Idea Generation Design Patterns

Lo-fi Mockups

• Communicate ideas quickly• Low cost• Allows us to make mistakes• Balsamiq is a great tool

Balsamiq

Balsamiq

Hi-fi mockups

• Remove ambiguity (especially if pixel perfect)

• Allows the finer points of layout to be specified

• Colours and graphics can be shown• Fireworks can be used

Techniques

• Wireframes – show the main pieces

• Storyboards – show a series of screens

Design Patterns

• Inspiration from other applications and websites

• Formalised patterns– For ideas– So we don’t have to reinvent the wheel– Quince.infragistics.com, welie.com

Design Patterns

Design Patterns

Working with other Teams

• Development – what are we building?• Solution/Software Architects – how

will we make it work?• Sales/Marketing – how do we sell and

explain it?• Testing – how should it work?

Research to Industry

Portable Skills

• Communicating with text and pictures– University: Constructing a thesis – Orion: Constructing deliverable documents to

explain designs to clients and other teams within Orion

Portable Skills

• Working on problems as a team– University: Working within a research group,

asking for ideas on how to solve problems– Orion: Working within a design team, designing

with other interaction designers and clinical staff

Portable Skills

• Confidence in interacting with people – University: Communicating with school staff

and families– Orion: Developing and maintaining contact

with clinicians and other contacts, who may be in New Zealand or overseas

Portable Skills

• Oral Presentations – University: Presenting at university and the

Ozchi conference– Orion: Presenting designs to a range of

audiences – at client sites and within Orion

Portable Skills

• Defending design decisions – University: Understanding rationale for a thesis

and research methodology– Orion: Understanding trade-offs and explaining

the rationale for design decisions