Interactive Systems Engineering
Encyclopedia
Interactive systems engineering is considered as an interdisciplinary field with computer engineering
, systems engineering
, interaction design
, software development
, aesthetic, ethnography
, psychology
and usability
factors involved. It targets current trends in the design and development of interactive systems which virtually includes all types of devices and systems which a human interacts with. It talks about four types of interaction in computer systems: the interaction between a human and computer (also addressed as human–computer interaction
), interaction between computer systems, and interaction between users through the computer system. Traditionally human–computer interaction is divided into three subject: design, user experience
, engineering. Interactive system engineering is more concerned about the latter subject.
. Another trend is towards distributed
, mobile
and heterogeneous (physically and socially) work settings. On a basis of modeling, programming, design and theory building, interactive systems engineering specializes in collaborative computing, ubiquitous computing
, adaptive user interfaces
, affective interaction
, multimodal interaction
, multimodal interfaces, human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence
, cognitive
, social science, principles of visualization.
In general the need for professional people trained in the design, development and management of interfaces and interactive systems is growing. Engineers with a specialization in interactive systems are necessary both in industry and in other sectors of society. Important industrial sectors include manufacturing
, process control
, telecommunication
, transportation, health care
, media and entertainment. Perhaps the most obvious recent example of the importance of interactive systems design is the design of services in mobile and wireless communication settings.
An interactive systems designer defines personas, scenarios, and requirements to guide designs, inspire clients and builds consensus concerning the affordance
, usability
, visibility
, mapping
and feedback
.
In research about IT design, expertise and methodology for studying human communication are increasingly important, both for understanding and studying the situated use of computer artifacts generally, and for analyzing the rapidly growing applications of information technology for communication and cooperation.
aspect at all while some have it as their core.
Working as an interaction designer requires a good knowledge things like PowerPoint, Flash, PhotoShop, web tools and other rapid prototyping tools, but only a small piece of a much larger toolbox. The interaction designer is concerned with interactions where at least one human user is present, i.e. human-system, or human-human, and of course human-system-human (e.g. telephones).
To make a good design the designer must have knowledge of how humans behave and react, but also what the technology can provide in order to create the best possible interaction experience. Also, in a development project, the interactive systems engineer must provide and evaluate sketches, models and prototypes of the developing system, and then follow up on their implementation, to make sure that the design meets the requirements set up for it.
In practice the interactive systems engineer is working close with the system designers, the user
s (of course) and basically everyone who has the power to influence the result. The ID must be present during specification, requirement, implementation, testing and marketing, and plan for all these phases, and be ready to re-plan when functional, financial or technological constraints evolve (as they always do).
The interactive systems engineers are probably less concerned with the decisions on the lower levels, like what kind of database management system
is used, implementation languages
, communication protocols and such. In industry the programmer
and interaction designer are rarely separated. As a computer programmer, you can work in developing all the aspects of the user interface
, evaluating
user experience
... you will rarely, I believe, find a job as an interaction designer that does not involve some programming, although you would be more qualified to later manage projects
(regarding user-machine interaction systems) than just having programming knowledge, as you will possess an overall knowledge.
the different parties involved, understanding the technological requirements as well as the user's needs and the user experience
.
Computer engineering
Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...
, systems engineering
Systems engineering
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed over the life cycle of the project. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more...
, interaction design
Interaction design
In design, human–computer interaction, and software development, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main...
, software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
, aesthetic, ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and usability
Usability
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
factors involved. It targets current trends in the design and development of interactive systems which virtually includes all types of devices and systems which a human interacts with. It talks about four types of interaction in computer systems: the interaction between a human and computer (also addressed as human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction
Human–computer Interaction is the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study...
), interaction between computer systems, and interaction between users through the computer system. Traditionally human–computer interaction is divided into three subject: design, user experience
User experience
User experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such...
, engineering. Interactive system engineering is more concerned about the latter subject.
Engineering and design
One such trend is towards highly collaborative scenarios where groups of people interact within environments with many devices and services, typically utilizing many modalitiesModality (human-computer interaction)
In human–computer interaction, a modality is the general class of:* a sense through which the human can receive the output of the computer * a sensor or device through which the computer can receive the input from the human...
. Another trend is towards distributed
Distributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
, mobile
Mobile computing
Mobile computing is a form of human–computer interaction by which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage. Mobile computing has three aspects: mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software...
and heterogeneous (physically and socially) work settings. On a basis of modeling, programming, design and theory building, interactive systems engineering specializes in collaborative computing, ubiquitous computing
Ubiquitous computing
Ubiquitous computing is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. In the course of ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems...
, adaptive user interfaces
Adaptive user interfaces
An adaptive user interface is a user interface which adapts, that is changes, its layout and elements to the needs of the user or context and is similarly alterable by each user....
, affective interaction
Affective computing
Affective computing is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer sciences, psychology, and cognitive science...
, multimodal interaction
Multimodal interaction
Multimodal interaction provides the user with multiple modes of interfacing with a system. A multimodal interface provides several distinct tools for input and output of data.- Multimodal input :...
, multimodal interfaces, human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, cognitive
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
, social science, principles of visualization.
In general the need for professional people trained in the design, development and management of interfaces and interactive systems is growing. Engineers with a specialization in interactive systems are necessary both in industry and in other sectors of society. Important industrial sectors include manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
, process control
Process control
Process control is a statistics and engineering discipline that deals with architectures, mechanisms and algorithms for maintaining the output of a specific process within a desired range...
, telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
, transportation, health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
, media and entertainment. Perhaps the most obvious recent example of the importance of interactive systems design is the design of services in mobile and wireless communication settings.
An interactive systems designer defines personas, scenarios, and requirements to guide designs, inspire clients and builds consensus concerning the affordance
Affordance
An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling...
, usability
Usability
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
, visibility
Visibility
In meteorology, visibility is a measure of the distance at which an object or light can be clearly discerned. It is reported within surface weather observations and METAR code either in meters or statute miles, depending upon the country. Visibility affects all forms of traffic: roads, sailing...
, mapping
Mapping
In geomatics or geospatial science and technology:Mapping usually refers to map-making and often used instead of cartography.Mapping term is also sometimes used for geospatial data collection but in fact it is not mapping because a map is created from some cartographic works In geomatics or...
and feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
.
In research about IT design, expertise and methodology for studying human communication are increasingly important, both for understanding and studying the situated use of computer artifacts generally, and for analyzing the rapidly growing applications of information technology for communication and cooperation.
Industry
There are a lot of different roles on the market for an interactive systems engineer. Some companies do not consider the usabilityUsability
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
aspect at all while some have it as their core.
Working as an interaction designer requires a good knowledge things like PowerPoint, Flash, PhotoShop, web tools and other rapid prototyping tools, but only a small piece of a much larger toolbox. The interaction designer is concerned with interactions where at least one human user is present, i.e. human-system, or human-human, and of course human-system-human (e.g. telephones).
To make a good design the designer must have knowledge of how humans behave and react, but also what the technology can provide in order to create the best possible interaction experience. Also, in a development project, the interactive systems engineer must provide and evaluate sketches, models and prototypes of the developing system, and then follow up on their implementation, to make sure that the design meets the requirements set up for it.
In practice the interactive systems engineer is working close with the system designers, the user
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
s (of course) and basically everyone who has the power to influence the result. The ID must be present during specification, requirement, implementation, testing and marketing, and plan for all these phases, and be ready to re-plan when functional, financial or technological constraints evolve (as they always do).
The interactive systems engineers are probably less concerned with the decisions on the lower levels, like what kind of database management system
Database management system
A database management system is a software package with computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and use of a database. It allows organizations to conveniently develop databases for various applications by database administrators and other specialists. A database is an integrated...
is used, implementation languages
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
, communication protocols and such. In industry the programmer
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
and interaction designer are rarely separated. As a computer programmer, you can work in developing all the aspects of the user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
, evaluating
Usability inspection
Usability inspection is the name for a set of methods where an evaluator inspects a user interface. This is in contrast to usability testing where the usability of the interface is evaluated by testing it on real users. Usability inspections can generally be used early in the development process by...
user experience
User experience
User experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such...
... you will rarely, I believe, find a job as an interaction designer that does not involve some programming, although you would be more qualified to later manage projects
Project management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
(regarding user-machine interaction systems) than just having programming knowledge, as you will possess an overall knowledge.
Research
In research there is a lot of room for interaction systems engineers as they are necessary to get the full picture and coordinate the work fromthe different parties involved, understanding the technological requirements as well as the user's needs and the user experience
User experience
User experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such...
.
See also
- User-centered designUser-centered designIn broad terms, user-centered design or pervasive usability is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process...
- Human–computer interactionHuman–computer interactionHuman–computer Interaction is the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study...
- Interaction designInteraction designIn design, human–computer interaction, and software development, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main...
- Sonic interaction designSonic interaction designSonic interaction design is the study and exploitation of sound as one of the principal channels conveying information, meaning, and aesthetic/emotional qualities in interactive contexts. Sonic interaction design is at the intersection of interaction design and sound and music computing...
Further reading
- Center for Interactive Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of TechnologyGeorgia Institute of TechnologyThe Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
- Ubiquitous Interaction (Uix) research group, Helsinki Institute for Information TechnologyHelsinki Institute for Information TechnologyHelsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT is a joint research unit of two leading research universities in Helsinki, Finland, the University of Helsinki and Aalto University....
- The Graduate School for Human-Machine Interaction (HMI), KTHRoyal Institute of TechnologyThe Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...
- The Interaction Design Association