Other great web design examples

There are many examples of interactive design especially in everyday life. However, there are also many great examples of interactive web designs. Below are some sites which perfectly demonstrates an interactive web design.

_KARBON
_karbon is a site built on flash which responds to the user's mouse pointer. Where ever the mouse goes, the screen follows and what ever the mouse clicks, the screen zooms and focuses on it - revealing more content and information. The idea is you click on a karbon logo and it will bring you to a particular section of the site whether to the homepage, the showreel, their portfolio etc. It also provides a simple menu at the left side which the users can use in case they find it hard to navigate through the site with the animated menu design.

CREAKTIF!
This particular website is similar to _karbon where it provides interactive buttons which serve as options for users to choose and navigate through the site content. CREAKTIF! is another website which provides information about this particular design company by presenting their portfolio and contact details through an interactive flash menu. Hence, this website is another great example of an interactive design.

Armin Morbach
This website serves to showcase the hair and make-up design of Armin Morbach. It demonstrates an interactive design through its flash menu. The homepage contains the word "Morbach" where each letter represents a category - i.e M for Mood and H for Hair. The user is encouraged to click on each letter to find out more about that particular category. After clicking it, a new window will appear showing pictures of designs done by Morbach.

Bernhard Wolf / Leslie / Photographer
This website is another example which allows users to easily browse through the artist's porfolio. Its interactive design allows users to click and zoom on a particular image in order to show extra information about it. It also allows users to click left and right to see new sets of images that they can browse.

Interactive Design - Examples

There are many great examples for interactive design. Since interactive design can be incorporated objects, programs or systems, you will discover that interactive design is something which you encounter everyday. Some examples include:

Mobile Phones - such as an iPhone
iPhones require its users to interact with the device through the 'multi-touch' feature. To make a call its users need to touch the screen to enter the number they want to call. Moreover there are games such as 'Tap Tap Revenge' which require its user to listen to the music and tap the screen with the beat.

Another example would be mp3/movie players such as iPods
iPods are great examples of interactive design. The users can choose whatever songs/movies they want to be played at any time. The buttons also allows them to navigate easily through the files in the device.

Laptop devices also demonstrate the concept of interactive design.
From the keyboard to the screen, users can see and view programs/websites/softwares on the screen and respond or react using the keyboard or the trackpad/mouse. Hence, laptops demonstrate the basic concept of interactive design; user-interaction (observe/watch and respond/react).

Similarly, ATM machines also demonstrate an interactive design where options and questions are presented on screen and users are required to press the appropriate buttons to make a transaction.

Other examples of interactive design can be seen through social networking sites such as:
- Facebook
- Myspace

Interactive Design - Definition

Interactive design is the design of spaces for human communication and reaction. It is the discipline of defining the behaviour of products and systems that a user can interact with. The development of interactive design basically revolves around the complex technology systems including softwares, mobile devices and other electronic devices. Having said that, interactive design is simply not limited to these technologies. It can apply to almost any design that involves and requires user interaction. Interactive design is the outcome of careful planning and the process of formulating the correct behaviour (the 'interaction) of an artifact or system in response to its users.

Certain principles of cognitive psychology (such as problem solving) provide grounding for interactive design. These include mental models (a representation of external reality or how something works in the real world), mapping, interface metaphors and affordances.

Reference:
Wikipedia. Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_design, 2009, last accessed 15 March 2009.