Interaction Design Day is here! 🎉🎉🎉

Interaction Design is a crucial part of User Experience Design, connecting users and products, and enabling users with the means to achieve their objectives in the best way possible. To provide the best interaction between users and products Designers must implement five dimensions effectively: 1D Words, 2D Visual representations, 3D Physical objects or space, 4D Time, and 5D Behaviour. The expected result a user can get from a product with meaningful interactions is to have effective Discoverability (intuitive UI that allows the user to have a continuous flow from beginning to end), Signifiers (these are strong cues that ensure Affordances - the relationship between an action and an object) and Feedback (explicit information about the impact of the action). These are all aspects that we as users crave in everything around us to avoid frustration and drop-out from using a product.

So, September 25th is the World Interaction Design Day! Hurray!!! 🎉🎉🎉

This year’s theme is Diversity and Inclusion in Design. The best way to celebrate diversity and inclusion is to raise awareness through design for minority groups (in)directly affected by: age, gender, gender identity, physical abilities, illness, religion, body size or sexual orientation. The stigma revolving around these characteristics shouldn’t exist, given that these characteristics shape the person’s identity and allow us to be so different and worthwhile. For this, and so much more, we should advocate diversity and inclusion in our design at all times. We are much more “normal” and alike than some people might think, which, in turn, makes the differences between us an absolute gem that we can use in our favour. In my opinion, design is one of the best ways to show your own identity and the difference between each and every one of us.
Nonetheless, there are characteristics that are frowned upon, especially in the workplace. The only group I’m directly affected by at this stage of my life is the gender. I am a (very proud) woman breaching into the man’s world of technology. It was very scary at first, but I must say that my personal experience has been nothing but spectacular! All the companies I have worked in have treated me as they treat everybody else, which is exactly what is intended when we talk about equality. Equality means treating everybody the same exact way without discrimination. I felt empowered, dignified, and my sense of belonging and the welcoming feel inside the tech companies nowadays are extraordinary. The fact that I did not feel excluded or treated differently is a sign that the struggles of old times are beginning to fade, but that does not mean they are over. I am well aware that my positive experiences are not the case for many women all over the world, even in the most developed countries. This is where we have to step in and make a change and defend the rights of all the people that have their integrity harmed in any way.

Women have an important influence in many more fields of Design, such as User Experience Research, which focuses on understanding user behaviors and needs, assessing every person in its individuality and collective significance. When we work in our designs we create personas that have the experience of the design adjusted to their specific behaviors and needs. Essentially, we create unified experiences centered in them, but respecting their differences. That’s exactly what women want as well - a democratization of equality. Women wish to have a tailored participation in the world by being provided with the same rights and opportunities as men, while assuming our differences and being respected for them.
However, women are just one example of a minority group affected by lack of equality and inclusion. Join this initiative to bring awareness to the discrimination that you or others you may know have felt so that we can cut the chain of ignorant behavior.