VIIA – Visual, Interface and Interaction Analysis

Most things and all systems can be examined in terms of these three entities:

VISUAL part

INTERFACE part

INTERACTION part

If you are engaged in a design project or inventing something then understanding what part of the overall problem you are working on is useful because it helps you to prioritise your workflow!

So what is what? Here are some examples:

In showing these 7 examples I am also going to add in some ideas about MOTIVATION, ACTORS, PLAY, CONTEXT and ask some questions about MOBILITY.

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1. A phone:

Visual: style and colour.

Interface: the bits you touch.

Interaction: The things you do.

I guess you could add another layer above interaction called MOTIVATION! The MOTIVATION to use a phone would be to make contact with another person!?

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2. A kettle: A MOTIVATION to use a kettle would be to make a cup of tea. The ACTION around a kettle might be the ritual of making tea. The ACTORS in this case are the people who are making the tea and the people who want tea. The PLAY is how people behave when the make tea for eachother. The design of the PLAY can sometimes be influenced by the VISUAL design of the Kettle. When? How?

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3. A software programme: The iPhone represents a huge change at the INTERFACE level. It also makes the entire system mobile. Where does the addition of MOBILITY fit into VIIA?

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4. Person to Person interaction. A simple “hmmpf” can mean everything to someone, depending entirely on the CONTEXT.

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5. Buildings. A church and a house and a shop are all buildings. The churchness of a church and the houseness of a house can be described by examining the ACTION that takes place in them.

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6. A university. The MOTIVATION in a University is Teaching and Learning. There are lots of other places/systems where Teaching and Learning may take place. Those places/systems will have different Interaction, Interface and Visual layers.

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7. Man Machine Interaction: In this picture a happy and an unhappy man machine interaction is shown. What are the essential MOTIVATION, INTERACTION, INTERFACE and VISUAL layers that make up happy and unhappy experiences?