Some examples of Interaction Design

 Research within interaction design thus focuses upon:

• Developing theory and practice around the design process and design of digital artifacts.
• Exploring new digital material and new interaction opportunities.
• Studying and understanding new contexts of use, such as domestic and leisure use, and learning and collaborative environments, just to mention two examples.

Research into interaction design includes the realization of computer hardware, software and services which seamlessly blend into the user's environment, an environment which therefore inevitably merges with the computing context of the individual. This means that interaction design  joins together several technical and engineering disciplines within ICT, drawing upon results from; HCI, industrial design, service-oriented computing, middleware for communication, and brokering and hardware in various forms, from user interaction surfaces to sensors.

Working towards the aim to produce knowledge on the forming of design practice, our  studies focus the  design processes that unfold in natural environments. A special attention is given to  the earlier phases of design such as research of design problems and development of design concepts. Of particular interest for us is the role played by user-centered methods such as sketching, scenarios, storyboards, personas, paper -based and high-fidelity prototyping,  in the design and development processes of computer based services and applications.

Examples of research questions we work with:

• How to automatically and unobtrusively capture and interpret  the user's computing context
• How to establish and maintain communication with the environment in a seamless, sustainable and efficient manner
• How to establish general standards for modeling of situational awareness, ad-hoc communication and information exchange, service discovery and the protection of privacy.