Hi Terrence,

According to my observations mid-to-large scale web projects are often
managed by information architects and project managers. Practically
speaking these people are at the core of a given web project and
therefore they design interactive products via problem solving and
decision making. According to IxDA, the Interaction Design Association
"Interaction Design (IxD) defines the structure and behavior of
interactive products and services. Interaction Designers create
compelling relationships between people and the interactive systems
they use, from computers to mobile devices to appliances; Interaction
Designers lay the groundwork for intangible experiences."

Unlike other design domains, web is solely about intangible
experiences. That's why I believe that interaction design is the core
design activity of web. If the case was the design of a coffee
machine, interaction design may be treated as a secondary activity for
sure.

Etkin Ciftci, Adjunct Professor
Kadir Has University, Faculty of Communications

On Jan 4, 2010, at 5:04 PM, Terence Love wrote:

> Dear Etkin,
> Yes, my apologies. I missed interaction design. I'll add it to the
> workflow
> list.
> Thinking about it, there is a sort of practical reason. Historically,
> visual appearance has dominated web design enormously. The result is
> those
> involved in deciding visual aesthetics of a website are commonly given
> management authority. This is strongly evident in typical
> boilerplate web
> design contracts and terms and conditions. My observation , and
> yours may be
> very different!, is that interaction expertise, like usability, is
> often
> seen as a subcontracted or secondary element of workflow? Mentally,
> I can
> see why interaction design should be central. On the other hand, I
> can't
> recollect a single web project I know where interaction designers (or
> usability or information designers) have had primary control of the
> project.
> If I'm completely mistaken and interaction designers commonly manage
> web
> design projects please let me know!!
> I would be very grateful of any description or sequence explaining how
> interaction designers best fit into practical web design workflows.
> Best wishes,
> Terry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and
> related
> research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Etkin
> Çiftçi
> Sent: Monday, 4 January 2010 6:58 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Web Design workflow research
>
> Hi Terrence,
>
> Apparently you've outlined some very important aspects of web design.
> Since they follow different workflows, you may also consider these
> topics for Web Sites & Web Applications separately. Also you may think
> of adding "interaction design" to your list besides interface design
> and graphic design. Most of the time interaction design seems to be
> the core design activity for the web.