This article presents an interface brainstorming tool that brings together a number of important characteristics of software user interface devices and interaction techniques. By focusing on individual interactions, one aspect at a time, it's easier to create multiple variants of any particular design.
Click on any characteristic below to get more detail.
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In our design process at MONKEYmedia, we've found this tool useful in showing us options we haven't thought of. It isn't meant to be an exhaustive set of options, but a catalyst for the creative process. To use it, we circle the set of characteristics that define one option for a design we're working on. Then, we change one or more variables and notice the impact on the whole interaction.
This gives us the opportunity to check each alternative for fit with the overall feel of a product -- so the messages we want to communicate via the product can come through equally as strong from the media content, the architecture that holds it, and the interactions employed. It's also a nice way to show a breadth of possibilities to a client. And, once decided on a final technique for any particular interaction, it makes it easy to communicate clear functional specifications to the engineering staff with little room for ambiguity and misunderstanding.
