January 21, 2008 at 15:27Interview with Aaron Marcus, President of AM + A, for edu) itonline Training Center
In February, Aaron Marcus, a man who has devoted 40 years to graphic design and usability, will visit Russia and Ukraine. His workshops with the assistance of the Edu) itonline training center will be held in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev. He was the first to find a correlation between the quality of user interfaces and the increase in the number of grateful consumers. And it was he who reduced the space between high-tech and man. We present to your attention an interview given by Aaron Marcus, President of Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM + A), staff member edu) itonline.
1. In 1967, you became the first graphic designer to fully devote himself to computer graphics. What was your first project, how was it related to design? What are the prerequisites for creating a quality interface?
My first job in computer graphics began with an internship at the AT + T Bell Laboratories Acoustics Research Department, located in Murray Hill in the United States (New Jersey), where I worked as an intern researcher and served as a programmer. At the interview, I told these guys one phrase that no one else in my life would say: “I don’t know why you want to hire me, but I already have a degree in physics, and now I'm studying graphic design. And so I thought that I should do something that combines both of these areas. Do you have anything suitable for me? ”Honestly, I didn’t understand how and to whom it would occur to me to take me to work. But the two experts who interviewed me, Peter Denes and A. Michael Noll, scientists with many years of research experience looked at each other with a smile and said that they were looking for just such a specialist! I was very surprised, and at the same time pleased with the opportunity to take my first step into the new world of computer graphics, which “appeared” only a few years ago - approximately in 1964. I was given the opportunity to do programming for computers that were considered one of the most powerful in the world, as well as for the first interactive computers that used raster scan displays - the latest technology just invented.
The first of my serious projects was the prototype of an interactive page layout system, made in 1969-71, for the innovative product AT + T Picturephone, announced in 1964. It can be said that I programmed one of the first desktop publishing systems. In this project, I was able to use the new knowledge accumulated during the work, as well as my experience in the field of printing, the use of color, symbol systems, typesetting and publishing. Of course, this significantly influenced the approach that I used in this project. Even without a suitable name for this type of activity, I was already engaged in design focused on user problems, using the knowledge that I had at that time about the work of a graphic artist (using today's terminology, creating a user profile or actor), which ultimately was a user of the system. The design goal was to increase the efficiency and quality of the page layout of the Yellow Pages telephone directory. I was considering how best to display the appearance of the text, bold, and illustrations. I was thinking about what symbols to use to represent user-executed commands on the screen, creating a prototype of the “graphical” user interface, although all user interaction with the system was mainly carried out using the keyboard. Fundamental education, knowledge in the field of mathematics and logic helped me quickly master the programming language that was used to create this system (it was a specific platform that was quite difficult to master). The knowledge in the field of graphic design and publishing has greatly facilitated the task of designing software screens for me, which used the concept of visualization to enter data and display the results of actions of users of the developed system. I was lucky: I was already familiar with the subject area, concept and content, as well as with the working environment of the application being developed. I published a detailed description of my project in a scientific journal devoted to research in the field of printing and the use of graphic tools for communication between people. I was already familiar with the subject area, concept and content, as well as with the working environment of the application being developed. I published a detailed description of my project in a scientific journal devoted to research in the field of printing and the use of graphic tools for communication between people. I was already familiar with the subject area, concept and content, as well as with the working environment of the application being developed. I published a detailed description of my project in a scientific journal devoted to research in the field of printing and the use of graphic tools for communication between people.
Marcus, Aaron (1971). “A Prototypical Computerized Page Design System,” Visible Language, Vol. 5, No. 3, Summer 1971, pp. 196-220.
This first project served as a starting point and was used as a guide in the following projects, including research on finding the best way to present technical documentation on C programming - this project was carried out by the Department of Advanced Research Projects of the US Department of Defense for three years (1982-1985), and I took part in it as a second researcher, together with Ron Baker, who is currently a professor in the field of Computing Engineering at the University of Toronto (Ron Baecker, Prof. of Computer Science, University of Toronto). Based on the results of this project, we published a book.
Baecker, Ron, and Aaron Marcus (1990). Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs, ACM Press and Addison-Wesley Publishers, Reading, MA, 348 pp.
Based on these first projects and the subsequent experience gained while working as a researcher in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, I wrote one of the first user interface design guides in 1980-1982. I formulated the principles of creating effective user interfaces, which, after some changes in terminology and concepts, remain relevant and still serve me.
I believe that the following elements are the basis of user interfaces: metaphors, mental models, navigation patterns, interaction characteristics, as well as certain presentation characteristics (these include language, voice, sound design, and even the characteristics of tactile sensations and smells). The process of designing user interfaces begins with planning, and includes the following main activities, sometimes performed in parallel or in a cycle: planning, research, analysis, development, implementation, evaluation, documentation, training and support. The purpose of this process is to make the process of user interaction with the program interface (as well as with the product, service department, company and other potential contact channels) practical and convenient (i.e. effective, efficient and comfortable) and at the same time useful and attractive. The last of the characteristics listed here brings an emotional component, increases trust, establishes social connections, defines a context, and also touches on many other aspects that were not associated with the user interface in the first few decades of its development as an independent discipline. In particular, we believe that culture plays an important role in shaping the user experience. which were not associated with the user interface in the first few decades of its development as an independent discipline. In particular, we believe that culture plays an important role in shaping the user experience. which were not associated with the user interface in the first few decades of its development as an independent discipline. In particular, we believe that culture plays an important role in shaping the user experience.
How did you imagine the future of design in the 1960s? Which of your predictions for the future have come true?
Based on my first experience working with computers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I realized that my professional experience and my knowledge in the field of graphic design and the use of visual means in communication played an extremely important role in the design of screen forms . In the end, computers help people communicate, not just work with numbers. I knew about the early research done at the Xerox Corporation research center in Palo Alto in 1972, and even sent one of my students to Princeton University for a summer internship around this time in the unit where Alan Kay and others worked famous researchers. I intuitively felt that visualization would be increasingly used in the computer industry. And my expectations were met. I also thought that in the future there will be excellent graphical tools for presenting and working with accumulated information, the complexity of which will exceed all that we have had so far. And this also came true, although at present we are only just beginning to explore the possibilities and prospects in this area.
2. In the last decade, you have focused on web applications, mobile devices, design of car controls, designing systems using information visualization, training for centers dealing with problems of improving the quality of products, developing guidelines for globalization and localization, as well as We paid a lot of attention to the problem of “baby face” (devices with small displays). What are the prospects for each of these areas and how can we achieve significant improvements in each of them?
The rate at which changes occurred in each of these areas was constantly increasing. Approximately every 7 years (plus or minus two years), paradigms in any of the computing platforms change, and significant changes take place in various aspects of human-machine interaction. Very often people try in vain to learn the principles of using new forms of presenting information or to get comfortable with new systems of concepts. We are constantly in the process of forming a new philosophy, principles, methods and techniques that make it easier for us to achieve our goals. In the very beginning, people often go ahead, act by trial and error, often exerting more effort than required. Then, when they gain experience and get used to the new, they begin to use simpler and more elegant methods, making fewer mistakes.
At the dawn of video text and teletext in telecommunications, old, almost forgotten graphic and textual means were used; and although at that time graphic capabilities were limited to several different fonts and eight colors, the first generation of “designers” (or at least the people who determined how each screen would look) sought to use as many different fonts and different colors on one screen as possible. This approach made it difficult for most users to perceive information. In the end, everything returned to normal; however, this took several years. We see the same thing these days when it comes to web design.
Trying to look into the future, it is difficult to formulate the main trends in a few sentences. I believe that a fashion for mobile and handheld gadgets can form, contributing to the spread of mobile platforms, which many experts predicted. In the future, “computers” in the modern sense of the word will disappear, and various miniature intelligent devices will take their place. In the communication process, various methods of interaction will be involved, including a reaction to touch, sound communications, used along with the visual presentation of information. An increasingly important place in the development of communications will be occupied by social, professional, family and other ties, which will play a decisive role in how information will be collected and used, how the functionality will be implemented, how the content will be formed, what forms of information will be used. The explosive growth in the number of people united by a single information environment around the globe (the second billion users), the amount of information and transmitted traffic will necessarily lead to new paradigms for presenting information and user interaction with the information environment, which will require more efficient use of the contents of this information space, will make it more convenient and suitable for use in any conditions and under any circumstances, thereby facilitating communication between people.
3. You are the author of more than 250 articles, 5 books, co-author of 7 books on the design of user interfaces, devices for working with information, as well as cultural aspects in modeling user interactions with interactive devices. Could you share with us your plans for your future projects and books that you are going to publish?
Thanks for the interesting question. I would like to emphasize the following.
I am currently working with Yukio Ota, President of the Tokyo Design Association Ota Yukio Design Association, to translate into English his book on LoCoS, the universal language of characters first published in 1973. This book will be published in English in the UK in 2008, AM + A launched an extranet dedicated to LoCoS:
www.amanda.com/extranet/extranet_f.html
Username: Password: yuki00ta (Note: the characters “00” are zeros, not the letters “O”).
Professor Ota and his students created a Japanese-language website dedicated to LoCoS; On this site, LoCoSworld, a Japanese-language LoCoS guide has been published. The LoCoSworld site is a place where all the necessary information for LoCoS supporters is collected, including the Palette system, which facilitates interaction between people, and supports the ability to add LoCoS symbols, means for translating schemes into symbols, and other applications:
locosworld.net
I also help Mr. Ota, who teaches courses at the Tama Art University in Tokyo, in his project to develop advanced national Japanese standards for pictograms used in medicine and related fields.
AM + A continues to work on many interesting, complex projects. One of these projects is the development of new standards for the design of user interfaces for various eBay server applications that support the work of many servers of this huge system. Another large-scale project is assistance in the evaluation and processing of an interactive medical information library, which is used by nurses and doctors at the Kaiser Medical Center, one of the leading medical centers in the United States.
I am also going to publish an extended version of the bibliography on the design of information interaction and information visualization, which I published in a periodical devoted to this problem.
Marcus, Aaron (2007). “Information Graphics: A Celebration and Recollection.” Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter, published: newsletter@perceptualedge.com in March 2007.
In addition, I write editorials for each issue of the User Experience magazine published by the Usability Professionals Association, www.usabilityprofessionals.org ).
I also wrote a whole chapter in my new, as yet unpublished book about my career, about how, starting with physics, I soon became interested and began to design user interfaces.
Marcus, Aaron (2008). “My Journey: From Physics to Graphic Design, to User-Interface / Information-Visualization Design,” in Alexenberg, Mel, Ed., Educating Artists for the Future. London: Intellect Press. Preparing for publication.
The experience gained over the past four years of managing a virtual development office, I have summarized in another book, which will also be released in 2008:
Marcus, Aaron (2008). “Light and Lively: Running a Virtual Design Office.” In Poggenpohl, Sharon, et al, Eds., Design Integrations: Research, Methods, Collaboration. Cambridge: MIT Press. Preparing for publication.
I published a new version of the chapter on intercultural aspects in the design of user interfaces in one of the most famous reference books on this issue:
Marcus, Aaron. (2007) “Global / Intercultural User-Interface Design,” in Jacko, J. and A. Spears, Eds., Chapter 18, Handbook of Human-Computrer Interaction, Third Edition. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 2007, pp. 355-380.
Also, together with Professor Patrick Rau from Tsinghua University in Beijing, I published an updated version of the chapter on these same issues in a leading publication on universal design issues:
Marcus, Aaron, and Rau, Patrick (2007). “International and Intercultural User Interfaces,” in User Interfaces for All, ed. Dr. Constantine Stephanidis, Chapter, 2nd rev. edition, Mawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, (in preparation).
One of the latest publications, a revised version of a popular article published on the AM + A website on the issue of return on investment in usability, is published in a good, popular book by Bias and Mayhew.
Marcus, Aaron (2005). “User Interface Design's Return on Investment: Examples and Statistics.” Chapter 2 in Bias, RG, and Mayhew, DJ., (Eds.), Cost-Justifying Usability, 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Elsevier, pp. 17-39.
4. You have been advising clients from different countries from all over the world for more than 30 years and have been the keynote speaker at many international conferences. And now you have come to Russia. What are your expectations from the seminar and audience in our country? How do you assess the level of Russia in the field of mobile device development, design and usability? What could you advise Russian specialists in these areas?
The last time I was in Russia was in May 1990. Since then, a lot has changed in the country, and first of all I would like to make my own opinion and see with my own eyes everything that I only read about for almost 20 years. I think that I will meet a lot of bright, talented people, and I will be glad to hear their opinion on the current state of affairs and on the development prospects in this area. I believe that for many professionals in Russia, the concepts of usability and design based on user experience may be new. I think it will be interesting for them to discover new sources of information and they will quickly get used to the new concepts of the approach to designing a user interface focused on the needs of the user. At international conferences in which I participated, I noticed several specialists from Russia. I suppose, that they have every opportunity to participate more actively in this process, to unlock their own potential, and in the future they will have a great influence on the process of developing products and services around the world. Now the Russian economy is on the rise, education in Russia has good traditions, and in addition, a new generation of people has grown up in Russia who are ready to contribute to the global development process. This is a generation that is successfully making its way in business and is making a significant contribution to the emergence of new products and services. This is an amazing era, a time of great change. I am glad that I was lucky to visit your country at this time. Now the Russian economy is on the rise, education in Russia has good traditions, and in addition, a new generation of people has grown up in Russia who are ready to contribute to the global development process. This is a generation that is successfully making its way in business and is making a significant contribution to the emergence of new products and services. This is an amazing era, a time of great change. I am glad that I was lucky to visit your country at this time. Now the Russian economy is on the rise, education in Russia has good traditions, and in addition, a new generation of people has grown up in Russia who are ready to contribute to the global development process. This is a generation that is successfully making its way in business and is making a significant contribution to the emergence of new products and services. This is an amazing era, a time of great change. I am glad that I was lucky to visit your country at this time.
5. In 2000, you were recognized as the “Master of Graphic Design of the 20th Century” by the ICOGRADA Association, and in 2007 you became a member of the scientific community of the American Institute of Fine Arts. Could you give some advice to specialists who are just starting their careers in this field?
The chapter in the book, which I already mentioned, tells about all aspects of my career, and at its end readers will find some tips for young designers, artists and researchers interested in developing new media, new technologies, creating new systems.
Marcus, Aaron (2008). “My Journey: From Physics to Graphic Design, to User-Interface / Information-Visualization Design,” in Alexenberg, Mel, Ed., Educating Artists for the Future. London: Intellect Press. Preparing for publication.
If possible, specialists from Russia, the professional community should participate in professional communities, monitor the activities and publications of professional organizations and get acquainted with conference materials on the problems of user interface design, usability, user-based design, and emphasizing the role of these important disciplines in research and practice. This must be done, even if they cannot become members of all communities or attend all conferences devoted to this topic. Here are some of them - in my opinion, these are the best resources.
AIGA 2009 in the USA (http://www.aiga.org). The American Institute of Fine Arts is a leading organization in graphic design. Their website provides information about the Center for Intercultural Interactions in Design.
CHI 2008, Florence, Italy (http://www.SIGCHI2006.org). The team on human-computer interaction within the Computing Association is a large and well-known international organization engaged in the design of user interfaces, the owner of the Interactions information resource.
HCII 2009 in San Diego, USA (California). (http://HCII2009.org). The international conference devoted to various aspects of human work with a computer interface (Human-Computer Interface International conference) is a conference at which the widest international audience in the field of user interface design is represented.
IWIPS 2008 in Bangalore (http://www.IWIPS2007) (past conference). The International Symposium on the Internationalization of Products and Services is the only conference on globalization and localization.
UPA 2008 in Baltimore, USA (Maryland)
(http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2008/). The Usability Professionals Association is an international organization with branches in many countries, including Russia. Russian specialists need to join both local and global groups in order to keep abreast of the latest developments in this field. The Association of Usability Professionals publishes User Experience magazine and is a sponsor of World Usability Day; The next date for this event is November 13, 2008, and in Russia at this time it is also planned to hold events on the topic of usability.
Vision + 13, the date of the next event is summer 2008, it is planned to be held in Austria (http://www.iiid.net), this is a conference on information design. The International Institute of Information Design sponsors this conference and a number of other projects.
Practitioners, scientists, educators, and researchers can publish usability articles and share their latest developments and projects in the following periodicals: User Experience (UX, UPA), Interactions, Information Design Journal (CHI), International Journal for Human-Computer Interaction (IJHCI Edition), as well as in the magazines Universal Access in the Information Society (UIAIS Edition) and Visible Language. I am the UX Editor-in-Chief, Information Design Editor, Member of the Interactions Advisory Board, and Member of the IJHCI, UAIS, and Visible Language Editorial Boards. And I urge everyone involved in this issue to publish their articles in these publications. Requirements for publications can be found on the websites of the respective publications.
Keeping in touch with professionals, following developments and developments in the field of usability, exchanging ideas and opinions, reporting on the results of their research and development, young professionals in Russia can contribute to the development of the usability field on a global scale, organize interesting new discussions on this topic make information technology more convenient for users.
6. What projects in the field of mobile devices, in your opinion, are the most successful? Could you give some examples? What is the most important? Design? Web 2.0? Usability?
In the field of design and development of mobile devices, the most interesting project was the development of more than 100 different concepts of improved user interfaces for smartphones in the USA; work was carried out 2-3 years before the appearance of smartphones on the market. Back in 2000, we developed a visualization concept for products such as the Apple i-Phone, a product introduced in 2007, and published a description of this project in a separate article:
Marcus, Aaron, and Chen, Eugene (2002). “Designing the PDA of the Future. ”Interactions, ACM Publisher, www.acm.org , 9: 1, January / February 2002, 32-44.
Over the next few years, thanks in large part to our efforts and several projects that we completed, Samsung, being a little-known brand in the USA, managed to rise to the second position after Motorola in the field of mobile phones and to the second position after Sony in the field of mass consumption products.
As for Web 2.0, here we worked with a leading mobile operator to create a more convenient and customizable Web-based user interface. For us, it was an interesting, complex, advanced and modern product.
In the field of usability, the results obtained in our DARPA research project in 1982-85 were tested by a group of independent experts specializing in ergonomic characteristics. The results showed that novice programmers using our developments improved their performance in terms of perception of information by 20%, and these are truly outstanding results.
Among other interesting projects I can name our collaboration with Saber. We were fortunate enough to work with three business units and develop a new user interface for the first version of Travelocity. We have developed more than 20 graphical versions of applications intended for one of the world's leading travel agencies and allowing you to book tickets. Our version has completely changed the old information systems that have been operating in this company for more than 20 years and which did not have a graphical interface. Based on the results of this project, we published an article in the Design Journal:
Marcus, Aaron, (2001). “User-interface design for air-travel booking: A case study of Saber.” Information Design Journal, 10: 2, 186-206.
7. Will we have Web 3.0?
People already use the semantic capabilities provided on the web, WWW extensions, in which information can be transmitted not only through the human language, but also in a format intended for interaction with software agents. This facilitates the search, exchange and consolidation of information. This is a new philosophy, a number of principles that form the basis of development, allowing you to build interaction in groups of people and are the basis of new technologies. These principles determine the future of the Web, where software will have amazing capabilities to collect, organize, analyze and present information to people in formats that people couldn't even dream of yesterday. In combination with a huge, hitherto inaccessible number of interactions between people and various objects represented on the Web,
Platforms, programs, and computers are changing, and only one thing in the design of user interfaces remains unchanged over time: behavior, communication. User interface designers will be masters of such “ceremonies” in the future, experts in the field of human communication.
About Aron Marcus and AM + A
AM + A is a world-famous organization that for 25 years has been engaged in research and analysis in the field of user interface design, human interaction with information systems, information visualization, as well as problems of intercultural interaction on the Web, in the workplace, as well as in areas related to with the development of desktop applications, mobile devices, cars and consumer goods. Their customers include Japanese companies such as Epson, Fujitsu, Justsystem, Ricoh and NTT Data. AM + A works with well-known and start-up companies in many countries. He gives lectures in various countries and universities around the world. In 2007, Aron Marcus became a member of the scientific community of the American Institute of Fine Arts.
1. In 1967, you became the first graphic designer to fully devote himself to computer graphics. What was your first project, how was it related to design? What are the prerequisites for creating a quality interface?
My first job in computer graphics began with an internship at the AT + T Bell Laboratories Acoustics Research Department, located in Murray Hill in the United States (New Jersey), where I worked as an intern researcher and served as a programmer. At the interview, I told these guys one phrase that no one else in my life would say: “I don’t know why you want to hire me, but I already have a degree in physics, and now I'm studying graphic design. And so I thought that I should do something that combines both of these areas. Do you have anything suitable for me? ”Honestly, I didn’t understand how and to whom it would occur to me to take me to work. But the two experts who interviewed me, Peter Denes and A. Michael Noll, scientists with many years of research experience looked at each other with a smile and said that they were looking for just such a specialist! I was very surprised, and at the same time pleased with the opportunity to take my first step into the new world of computer graphics, which “appeared” only a few years ago - approximately in 1964. I was given the opportunity to do programming for computers that were considered one of the most powerful in the world, as well as for the first interactive computers that used raster scan displays - the latest technology just invented.
The first of my serious projects was the prototype of an interactive page layout system, made in 1969-71, for the innovative product AT + T Picturephone, announced in 1964. It can be said that I programmed one of the first desktop publishing systems. In this project, I was able to use the new knowledge accumulated during the work, as well as my experience in the field of printing, the use of color, symbol systems, typesetting and publishing. Of course, this significantly influenced the approach that I used in this project. Even without a suitable name for this type of activity, I was already engaged in design focused on user problems, using the knowledge that I had at that time about the work of a graphic artist (using today's terminology, creating a user profile or actor), which ultimately was a user of the system. The design goal was to increase the efficiency and quality of the page layout of the Yellow Pages telephone directory. I was considering how best to display the appearance of the text, bold, and illustrations. I was thinking about what symbols to use to represent user-executed commands on the screen, creating a prototype of the “graphical” user interface, although all user interaction with the system was mainly carried out using the keyboard. Fundamental education, knowledge in the field of mathematics and logic helped me quickly master the programming language that was used to create this system (it was a specific platform that was quite difficult to master). The knowledge in the field of graphic design and publishing has greatly facilitated the task of designing software screens for me, which used the concept of visualization to enter data and display the results of actions of users of the developed system. I was lucky: I was already familiar with the subject area, concept and content, as well as with the working environment of the application being developed. I published a detailed description of my project in a scientific journal devoted to research in the field of printing and the use of graphic tools for communication between people. I was already familiar with the subject area, concept and content, as well as with the working environment of the application being developed. I published a detailed description of my project in a scientific journal devoted to research in the field of printing and the use of graphic tools for communication between people. I was already familiar with the subject area, concept and content, as well as with the working environment of the application being developed. I published a detailed description of my project in a scientific journal devoted to research in the field of printing and the use of graphic tools for communication between people.
Marcus, Aaron (1971). “A Prototypical Computerized Page Design System,” Visible Language, Vol. 5, No. 3, Summer 1971, pp. 196-220.
This first project served as a starting point and was used as a guide in the following projects, including research on finding the best way to present technical documentation on C programming - this project was carried out by the Department of Advanced Research Projects of the US Department of Defense for three years (1982-1985), and I took part in it as a second researcher, together with Ron Baker, who is currently a professor in the field of Computing Engineering at the University of Toronto (Ron Baecker, Prof. of Computer Science, University of Toronto). Based on the results of this project, we published a book.
Baecker, Ron, and Aaron Marcus (1990). Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs, ACM Press and Addison-Wesley Publishers, Reading, MA, 348 pp.
Based on these first projects and the subsequent experience gained while working as a researcher in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, I wrote one of the first user interface design guides in 1980-1982. I formulated the principles of creating effective user interfaces, which, after some changes in terminology and concepts, remain relevant and still serve me.
I believe that the following elements are the basis of user interfaces: metaphors, mental models, navigation patterns, interaction characteristics, as well as certain presentation characteristics (these include language, voice, sound design, and even the characteristics of tactile sensations and smells). The process of designing user interfaces begins with planning, and includes the following main activities, sometimes performed in parallel or in a cycle: planning, research, analysis, development, implementation, evaluation, documentation, training and support. The purpose of this process is to make the process of user interaction with the program interface (as well as with the product, service department, company and other potential contact channels) practical and convenient (i.e. effective, efficient and comfortable) and at the same time useful and attractive. The last of the characteristics listed here brings an emotional component, increases trust, establishes social connections, defines a context, and also touches on many other aspects that were not associated with the user interface in the first few decades of its development as an independent discipline. In particular, we believe that culture plays an important role in shaping the user experience. which were not associated with the user interface in the first few decades of its development as an independent discipline. In particular, we believe that culture plays an important role in shaping the user experience. which were not associated with the user interface in the first few decades of its development as an independent discipline. In particular, we believe that culture plays an important role in shaping the user experience.
How did you imagine the future of design in the 1960s? Which of your predictions for the future have come true?
Based on my first experience working with computers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I realized that my professional experience and my knowledge in the field of graphic design and the use of visual means in communication played an extremely important role in the design of screen forms . In the end, computers help people communicate, not just work with numbers. I knew about the early research done at the Xerox Corporation research center in Palo Alto in 1972, and even sent one of my students to Princeton University for a summer internship around this time in the unit where Alan Kay and others worked famous researchers. I intuitively felt that visualization would be increasingly used in the computer industry. And my expectations were met. I also thought that in the future there will be excellent graphical tools for presenting and working with accumulated information, the complexity of which will exceed all that we have had so far. And this also came true, although at present we are only just beginning to explore the possibilities and prospects in this area.
2. In the last decade, you have focused on web applications, mobile devices, design of car controls, designing systems using information visualization, training for centers dealing with problems of improving the quality of products, developing guidelines for globalization and localization, as well as We paid a lot of attention to the problem of “baby face” (devices with small displays). What are the prospects for each of these areas and how can we achieve significant improvements in each of them?
The rate at which changes occurred in each of these areas was constantly increasing. Approximately every 7 years (plus or minus two years), paradigms in any of the computing platforms change, and significant changes take place in various aspects of human-machine interaction. Very often people try in vain to learn the principles of using new forms of presenting information or to get comfortable with new systems of concepts. We are constantly in the process of forming a new philosophy, principles, methods and techniques that make it easier for us to achieve our goals. In the very beginning, people often go ahead, act by trial and error, often exerting more effort than required. Then, when they gain experience and get used to the new, they begin to use simpler and more elegant methods, making fewer mistakes.
At the dawn of video text and teletext in telecommunications, old, almost forgotten graphic and textual means were used; and although at that time graphic capabilities were limited to several different fonts and eight colors, the first generation of “designers” (or at least the people who determined how each screen would look) sought to use as many different fonts and different colors on one screen as possible. This approach made it difficult for most users to perceive information. In the end, everything returned to normal; however, this took several years. We see the same thing these days when it comes to web design.
Trying to look into the future, it is difficult to formulate the main trends in a few sentences. I believe that a fashion for mobile and handheld gadgets can form, contributing to the spread of mobile platforms, which many experts predicted. In the future, “computers” in the modern sense of the word will disappear, and various miniature intelligent devices will take their place. In the communication process, various methods of interaction will be involved, including a reaction to touch, sound communications, used along with the visual presentation of information. An increasingly important place in the development of communications will be occupied by social, professional, family and other ties, which will play a decisive role in how information will be collected and used, how the functionality will be implemented, how the content will be formed, what forms of information will be used. The explosive growth in the number of people united by a single information environment around the globe (the second billion users), the amount of information and transmitted traffic will necessarily lead to new paradigms for presenting information and user interaction with the information environment, which will require more efficient use of the contents of this information space, will make it more convenient and suitable for use in any conditions and under any circumstances, thereby facilitating communication between people.
3. You are the author of more than 250 articles, 5 books, co-author of 7 books on the design of user interfaces, devices for working with information, as well as cultural aspects in modeling user interactions with interactive devices. Could you share with us your plans for your future projects and books that you are going to publish?
Thanks for the interesting question. I would like to emphasize the following.
I am currently working with Yukio Ota, President of the Tokyo Design Association Ota Yukio Design Association, to translate into English his book on LoCoS, the universal language of characters first published in 1973. This book will be published in English in the UK in 2008, AM + A launched an extranet dedicated to LoCoS:
www.amanda.com/extranet/extranet_f.html
Username: Password: yuki00ta (Note: the characters “00” are zeros, not the letters “O”).
Professor Ota and his students created a Japanese-language website dedicated to LoCoS; On this site, LoCoSworld, a Japanese-language LoCoS guide has been published. The LoCoSworld site is a place where all the necessary information for LoCoS supporters is collected, including the Palette system, which facilitates interaction between people, and supports the ability to add LoCoS symbols, means for translating schemes into symbols, and other applications:
locosworld.net
I also help Mr. Ota, who teaches courses at the Tama Art University in Tokyo, in his project to develop advanced national Japanese standards for pictograms used in medicine and related fields.
AM + A continues to work on many interesting, complex projects. One of these projects is the development of new standards for the design of user interfaces for various eBay server applications that support the work of many servers of this huge system. Another large-scale project is assistance in the evaluation and processing of an interactive medical information library, which is used by nurses and doctors at the Kaiser Medical Center, one of the leading medical centers in the United States.
I am also going to publish an extended version of the bibliography on the design of information interaction and information visualization, which I published in a periodical devoted to this problem.
Marcus, Aaron (2007). “Information Graphics: A Celebration and Recollection.” Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter, published: newsletter@perceptualedge.com in March 2007.
In addition, I write editorials for each issue of the User Experience magazine published by the Usability Professionals Association, www.usabilityprofessionals.org ).
I also wrote a whole chapter in my new, as yet unpublished book about my career, about how, starting with physics, I soon became interested and began to design user interfaces.
Marcus, Aaron (2008). “My Journey: From Physics to Graphic Design, to User-Interface / Information-Visualization Design,” in Alexenberg, Mel, Ed., Educating Artists for the Future. London: Intellect Press. Preparing for publication.
The experience gained over the past four years of managing a virtual development office, I have summarized in another book, which will also be released in 2008:
Marcus, Aaron (2008). “Light and Lively: Running a Virtual Design Office.” In Poggenpohl, Sharon, et al, Eds., Design Integrations: Research, Methods, Collaboration. Cambridge: MIT Press. Preparing for publication.
I published a new version of the chapter on intercultural aspects in the design of user interfaces in one of the most famous reference books on this issue:
Marcus, Aaron. (2007) “Global / Intercultural User-Interface Design,” in Jacko, J. and A. Spears, Eds., Chapter 18, Handbook of Human-Computrer Interaction, Third Edition. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 2007, pp. 355-380.
Also, together with Professor Patrick Rau from Tsinghua University in Beijing, I published an updated version of the chapter on these same issues in a leading publication on universal design issues:
Marcus, Aaron, and Rau, Patrick (2007). “International and Intercultural User Interfaces,” in User Interfaces for All, ed. Dr. Constantine Stephanidis, Chapter, 2nd rev. edition, Mawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, (in preparation).
One of the latest publications, a revised version of a popular article published on the AM + A website on the issue of return on investment in usability, is published in a good, popular book by Bias and Mayhew.
Marcus, Aaron (2005). “User Interface Design's Return on Investment: Examples and Statistics.” Chapter 2 in Bias, RG, and Mayhew, DJ., (Eds.), Cost-Justifying Usability, 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Elsevier, pp. 17-39.
4. You have been advising clients from different countries from all over the world for more than 30 years and have been the keynote speaker at many international conferences. And now you have come to Russia. What are your expectations from the seminar and audience in our country? How do you assess the level of Russia in the field of mobile device development, design and usability? What could you advise Russian specialists in these areas?
The last time I was in Russia was in May 1990. Since then, a lot has changed in the country, and first of all I would like to make my own opinion and see with my own eyes everything that I only read about for almost 20 years. I think that I will meet a lot of bright, talented people, and I will be glad to hear their opinion on the current state of affairs and on the development prospects in this area. I believe that for many professionals in Russia, the concepts of usability and design based on user experience may be new. I think it will be interesting for them to discover new sources of information and they will quickly get used to the new concepts of the approach to designing a user interface focused on the needs of the user. At international conferences in which I participated, I noticed several specialists from Russia. I suppose, that they have every opportunity to participate more actively in this process, to unlock their own potential, and in the future they will have a great influence on the process of developing products and services around the world. Now the Russian economy is on the rise, education in Russia has good traditions, and in addition, a new generation of people has grown up in Russia who are ready to contribute to the global development process. This is a generation that is successfully making its way in business and is making a significant contribution to the emergence of new products and services. This is an amazing era, a time of great change. I am glad that I was lucky to visit your country at this time. Now the Russian economy is on the rise, education in Russia has good traditions, and in addition, a new generation of people has grown up in Russia who are ready to contribute to the global development process. This is a generation that is successfully making its way in business and is making a significant contribution to the emergence of new products and services. This is an amazing era, a time of great change. I am glad that I was lucky to visit your country at this time. Now the Russian economy is on the rise, education in Russia has good traditions, and in addition, a new generation of people has grown up in Russia who are ready to contribute to the global development process. This is a generation that is successfully making its way in business and is making a significant contribution to the emergence of new products and services. This is an amazing era, a time of great change. I am glad that I was lucky to visit your country at this time.
5. In 2000, you were recognized as the “Master of Graphic Design of the 20th Century” by the ICOGRADA Association, and in 2007 you became a member of the scientific community of the American Institute of Fine Arts. Could you give some advice to specialists who are just starting their careers in this field?
The chapter in the book, which I already mentioned, tells about all aspects of my career, and at its end readers will find some tips for young designers, artists and researchers interested in developing new media, new technologies, creating new systems.
Marcus, Aaron (2008). “My Journey: From Physics to Graphic Design, to User-Interface / Information-Visualization Design,” in Alexenberg, Mel, Ed., Educating Artists for the Future. London: Intellect Press. Preparing for publication.
If possible, specialists from Russia, the professional community should participate in professional communities, monitor the activities and publications of professional organizations and get acquainted with conference materials on the problems of user interface design, usability, user-based design, and emphasizing the role of these important disciplines in research and practice. This must be done, even if they cannot become members of all communities or attend all conferences devoted to this topic. Here are some of them - in my opinion, these are the best resources.
AIGA 2009 in the USA (http://www.aiga.org). The American Institute of Fine Arts is a leading organization in graphic design. Their website provides information about the Center for Intercultural Interactions in Design.
CHI 2008, Florence, Italy (http://www.SIGCHI2006.org). The team on human-computer interaction within the Computing Association is a large and well-known international organization engaged in the design of user interfaces, the owner of the Interactions information resource.
HCII 2009 in San Diego, USA (California). (http://HCII2009.org). The international conference devoted to various aspects of human work with a computer interface (Human-Computer Interface International conference) is a conference at which the widest international audience in the field of user interface design is represented.
IWIPS 2008 in Bangalore (http://www.IWIPS2007) (past conference). The International Symposium on the Internationalization of Products and Services is the only conference on globalization and localization.
UPA 2008 in Baltimore, USA (Maryland)
(http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2008/). The Usability Professionals Association is an international organization with branches in many countries, including Russia. Russian specialists need to join both local and global groups in order to keep abreast of the latest developments in this field. The Association of Usability Professionals publishes User Experience magazine and is a sponsor of World Usability Day; The next date for this event is November 13, 2008, and in Russia at this time it is also planned to hold events on the topic of usability.
Vision + 13, the date of the next event is summer 2008, it is planned to be held in Austria (http://www.iiid.net), this is a conference on information design. The International Institute of Information Design sponsors this conference and a number of other projects.
Practitioners, scientists, educators, and researchers can publish usability articles and share their latest developments and projects in the following periodicals: User Experience (UX, UPA), Interactions, Information Design Journal (CHI), International Journal for Human-Computer Interaction (IJHCI Edition), as well as in the magazines Universal Access in the Information Society (UIAIS Edition) and Visible Language. I am the UX Editor-in-Chief, Information Design Editor, Member of the Interactions Advisory Board, and Member of the IJHCI, UAIS, and Visible Language Editorial Boards. And I urge everyone involved in this issue to publish their articles in these publications. Requirements for publications can be found on the websites of the respective publications.
Keeping in touch with professionals, following developments and developments in the field of usability, exchanging ideas and opinions, reporting on the results of their research and development, young professionals in Russia can contribute to the development of the usability field on a global scale, organize interesting new discussions on this topic make information technology more convenient for users.
6. What projects in the field of mobile devices, in your opinion, are the most successful? Could you give some examples? What is the most important? Design? Web 2.0? Usability?
In the field of design and development of mobile devices, the most interesting project was the development of more than 100 different concepts of improved user interfaces for smartphones in the USA; work was carried out 2-3 years before the appearance of smartphones on the market. Back in 2000, we developed a visualization concept for products such as the Apple i-Phone, a product introduced in 2007, and published a description of this project in a separate article:
Marcus, Aaron, and Chen, Eugene (2002). “Designing the PDA of the Future. ”Interactions, ACM Publisher, www.acm.org , 9: 1, January / February 2002, 32-44.
Over the next few years, thanks in large part to our efforts and several projects that we completed, Samsung, being a little-known brand in the USA, managed to rise to the second position after Motorola in the field of mobile phones and to the second position after Sony in the field of mass consumption products.
As for Web 2.0, here we worked with a leading mobile operator to create a more convenient and customizable Web-based user interface. For us, it was an interesting, complex, advanced and modern product.
In the field of usability, the results obtained in our DARPA research project in 1982-85 were tested by a group of independent experts specializing in ergonomic characteristics. The results showed that novice programmers using our developments improved their performance in terms of perception of information by 20%, and these are truly outstanding results.
Among other interesting projects I can name our collaboration with Saber. We were fortunate enough to work with three business units and develop a new user interface for the first version of Travelocity. We have developed more than 20 graphical versions of applications intended for one of the world's leading travel agencies and allowing you to book tickets. Our version has completely changed the old information systems that have been operating in this company for more than 20 years and which did not have a graphical interface. Based on the results of this project, we published an article in the Design Journal:
Marcus, Aaron, (2001). “User-interface design for air-travel booking: A case study of Saber.” Information Design Journal, 10: 2, 186-206.
7. Will we have Web 3.0?
People already use the semantic capabilities provided on the web, WWW extensions, in which information can be transmitted not only through the human language, but also in a format intended for interaction with software agents. This facilitates the search, exchange and consolidation of information. This is a new philosophy, a number of principles that form the basis of development, allowing you to build interaction in groups of people and are the basis of new technologies. These principles determine the future of the Web, where software will have amazing capabilities to collect, organize, analyze and present information to people in formats that people couldn't even dream of yesterday. In combination with a huge, hitherto inaccessible number of interactions between people and various objects represented on the Web,
Platforms, programs, and computers are changing, and only one thing in the design of user interfaces remains unchanged over time: behavior, communication. User interface designers will be masters of such “ceremonies” in the future, experts in the field of human communication.
About Aron Marcus and AM + A
AM + A is a world-famous organization that for 25 years has been engaged in research and analysis in the field of user interface design, human interaction with information systems, information visualization, as well as problems of intercultural interaction on the Web, in the workplace, as well as in areas related to with the development of desktop applications, mobile devices, cars and consumer goods. Their customers include Japanese companies such as Epson, Fujitsu, Justsystem, Ricoh and NTT Data. AM + A works with well-known and start-up companies in many countries. He gives lectures in various countries and universities around the world. In 2007, Aron Marcus became a member of the scientific community of the American Institute of Fine Arts.