Understanding Interaction Design Overview: From Usability to Experience

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an introductory overview of interaction design, offering a framework to understand its scope within the broader field of human-computer interaction (HCI). While HCI encompasses a vast range of research and applications, interaction design focuses specifically on the design of meaningful user experiences — shaping how people engage with digital systems, tools, and environments.

Historically, the concept of interaction design remained relatively marginal until the mid-1990s. It was often regarded as a subdomain of industrial design, concerned primarily with the behaviors of virtual interfaces. At the time, both academia and the ICT industry concentrated on usability and human factors engineering, translating psychology and ergonomics into efficient, error-free workflows.

The Shift Toward Experience

As the Internet expanded and digital consumer products entered everyday life, design priorities began to shift. By the early 2000s, interaction design emerged as a distinct discipline — bridging engineering and aesthetics, usability and emotion.

Rather than focusing solely on functional efficiency, designers began to explore the qualitative aspects of interaction: pleasure, flow, narrative, and aesthetics of use. This transition reflected a broader cultural change — technology was no longer just a tool for work but an integral part of social and personal experience.

Five Characteristics of interaction design overview

Modern interaction design overview can be characterized by five major traits:

1. A focus on human experience over technical performance.

2. The integration of visual, behavioral, and emotional design.

3. A contextual awareness of where and how technology is used.

4. The blending of design thinking with systems logic.

5. An ongoing dialogue between users and digital interfaces.

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Together, these principles reflect a discipline that seeks not only to make technology usable — but also meaningful.