Hardware interface design
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Hardware Interface Design is a transdisciplinary design field that shapes the physical connection between people & technology. The development of hardware interfaces as a field is both unique and budding and continues to mature as more and more things around us connect to the internet and operate with grander digital implications.
Profession
Hardware interface designers have the sensibility of a designer, ingenuity of an engineer, the ability to converse fluently with creative and technical teams, and a limitless passion for learning and tinkering with unproven and cutting edge technologies and user interaction models. By drawing upon the fields of industrial design, interaction design, and electrical engineering hardware interface designers are able to transcend the typical boundaries of each respective field in order to prototype and invent physical interfaces that feel, sound, and behave beautifully.
While glossy touchscreens have their time & place, so do knobs, buttons, sliders, and switches in the grander toolset of hardware interface design. These all then culminate to answer one simple, driving question during the job: what do we want people to feel, when using technology?
Examples
An example of a hardware interface could include a remote control, kitchen timer, control panel for a nuclear power plant[1] or even the cockpit of an aircraft.[2]
Another example is the computer mouse. It combines hardware interface staple features such as buttons and a scrolling wheel with an innovative two-dimensional motion tracking laser. Dragging the mouse over a flat surface and have a pointer moves on the screen accordingly. There is a very clear relationship about the behaviors shown by a system with the movements of a mouse.
References
- ^ E.E. Shultz. "User interface design in safety parameter display systems: direction for enhancement". Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Lance Sherry. "DESIGNING USER-INTERFACES FOR THE COCKPIT:" (PDF). Society of Automotive Engineers. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
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See also