I am an interface designer

Since I am currently working on an interface design, I have some insights when I read the chapter 5, in particular the three aspects of meaning: ontology, inter-subjectivity, and intentionality. It changes my perspectives of looking at the system design process and my role as a designer.

I used to think my job is to create a user-friendly interface. I followed the principles & steps in the role model & task model to analyze different roles, create use cases, and test usability. Therefore, I thought a good design was having a good navigation, accessibility, readability, and so on. I have to admit that I didn’t think it thoroughly that user’s experience plays such an important role in designing process. Based upon this concept, I was actually building a common ground with the users and negotiating meanings in user’s experience during in interviews.

Thus, I am so agree the author’s statements: “Computation is fundamentally about representation (p.137)” and “The system can be thought of as the medium through which a designer and a user communicate (P.132)”. The representation must fit into user’s experience and can be understood & share common meanings by users, because users are acting through the system in order to accomplish something in their minds, for example: maybe making a complaint, a compliment, a suggestion, or a solution, etc. If the system doesn’t make sense to the users or doesn’t fit their ontology, they will simply not use it anymore. This is also the major finding I discovered after the usability tests in my project.

After reading these chapters, I do learn a lot and I realize the importance of a. From now on, I will have a brand new attitude toward my design process and I will keep those 6 principles in mind. :-)