Overview
Two studs wide and sloped at 45°, the most sought-after LEGO bricks of our childhood have a big secret. Their brightly coloured patterns hide a myriad of UX lessons about the design, layout, and organisation of complex interfaces. Forget touchscreens and pixels, this is the UX of the physical world where haptics, switches and funny shaped knobs rule the day.
From Soviet power stations to the cancelled Dyson electric car, we tour through the design of complex physical interfaces and the UX principles that can be applied to any product. Chaotic clusters of dials and levers must be organised with six key codings, a lesson tragically learned during WWII and repeated decades later by Ford. With the LEGO bricks as our guide, we’ll use ideas from naval battleships to Google Home to discover how to differentiate, organise and build better interfaces.
Objective
To discover and explore the key principles of physical interface design in a fun and educational way.
Five Things Audience Members Will Learn
- How to break down a complex interface into the two key topics of differentiation & organization
- The origin of shape coding in WWII and why it’s still relevant today
- The six basic interface codings that are used to differentiate physical inputs
- When to consider a distributed vs. consolidated interface layout
- The benefits and drawbacks of feature, technology and use-case based organization
Target Audience
UX / interaction designers of all levels, but particularly digital designers who are curious about learning how their skills apply in the physical world.
Assumed Audience Knowledge
Basic awareness and interest in UX design
