Exploring interaction styles through video

In this paper we present an approach to address interaction styles from the start of a design process using video as the main design tool. We argue that video with its visual and auditory richness, its dynamic and temporal character, and its narrative structure, is a natural medium for the exploration and generation of interaction styles. As part of an honours track within our regular industrial design bachelor program, some 25 students participated in a short module, in which they were introduced to
the concept of designing interaction styles. Consisting of four workshops of four hours each, the aim of the module was to have the students experience how they could go through a design process starting from the “how” rather than from the “what” or “why”. Throughout the module, video was consistently
used as the only means to document and present the results. Overall, the application of video turned out to be insightful as well as critical. Through creating, reviewing and improving their videos, students developed sensitivity for what is ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ when designing an interaction flow. Finetuning this flow, however, proved to be quite difficult, having to master both video and audio editing software to a considerable extent. Developing skills in preparing, shooting and processing video thus
turned out to be crucial, since these are required to get it ‘just right’. Currently we are therefore looking into options to create an exploration toolkit that would make the alignment and manipulation of video and audio more accessible.