History of Interaction Design

Interaction design has had a long history of development, starting with Philosophy and it's principles of Aesthetics, how they lead to the foundation of Art and eventually design and the emergence of aesthetics in industrial design have become the underline for human computer interaction design in the information age.

I have been looking into artist Bruno Munari whose influence from his own personal life reflects into his work through art, philosophy and design, Munari has used philosophy to create a new layer of understanding and demonstrating feelings through industrial practice and how aesthetic, whether useless or not can be meaningful in the way we think and interact with everything.

Bruno Munari, Useless Machine 1968

‘The useless machines’ are a good example of aesthetic, art and philosophy submerged into something meaningfulness, munari created the “useless machines” in the early 1930s and the primary inspiration came from his childhood as he would create things with minimal materials and hang them in his bedroom. Munari went beyond the traditional practice of art and constructed the pieces with light cardboard, silk thread, glass and pieces of wood.

His abstract creation had been summarised as an element of freedom from the traditions of art and its paintings, representing time and space whilst also being “useless” in the sense that the pieces do not have a purpose or intended use for anything except for the aesthetics and the spiritual understanding that comes from self-analysis and how we want to interpret our everyday things.

I found it it very interesting how Munari created the ‘useless machines’ and how the concept of futurism and philosophy worked together, experimental materials and inspirations that explored multiple techniques and aesthetics becoming the foundation of industrial design, because of how people started to look beyond the core function of engineering and focused on the design aspect to create meaning.

The co-operation between design and engineering inspired by the likes of people like munari, who had created a whole new concept of how form and function will align with our basic needs of interacting with things, feeling something for an object that was considered an inanimate object due to the lack of philosophy and design being instructed into the process can be a shallow attempt at consumerism.Ignoring the nature of aesthetics and artistic value can feel disjointed due to the key part of nature being abstract and natural, whilst spiritual emphasis cannot be created the same way as life.

The artistic creative process can give a vast range of interpretation to different individuals and feeling the interaction can give meaning to people in so many ways that they become sentimental about the things they own which can lead to happiness in the experiences they remember because they feel it was designed specifically for them.

Whilst industrial design had begun gaining ground, another form of design principle came into being in 1984, when bill moggridge coined the term “soft-face” at a conference where industrial design transcended into the world of machines where the interface for the software needed to be aesthetically pleasing and the term “interaction design” as we know it today came into being.

The usability was considered a core element of how design and human computer interaction intertwined with machines to feel natural and with that creating an emotional bond that would leave a lasting impression on the user.

I found the significance of art in practice to be a topic that helped me understand the philosophy of how aesthetics can be multifaceted,the depth of how far historical development has lead to the current revolution in the information age and how user experience is measured in terms emotional design instead of shallow exposure to products with no meaning or personal value.

References

Munari, B. and Creagh, P. (2009) Design as art. London: Penguin Group UK.

Moggridge, Bill (2007): Designing Interactions, The MIT Press.

Munari’s childhood memories and ‘Useless Machines’ (2014) Available at: http://www.italianways.com/munaris-childhood-memories-and-useless-machines/

Shelley, J. (2013) The concept of the aesthetic. Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetic-concept/#Imm