Explaining the differences in labels, especially between these two, is mostly about fine distinctions. Wherever you go, you should try to learn about all of these areas.
HCI was the term used when I was doing academic research into the psychology of how humans interacted with computers. Within the HCI community (mostly ACM SigCHI), a "User Interface Designer" was the practitioner who designed the interface rather than studied the behavior. "Usability" is the testing and evaluation process to determine if a given design is "usable", which often requires some background in experimental design and analysis. As the "user interface" became more graphical, some UI designers were better at the graphic design and some better at just the interaction (flow, information presented, controls). In many job descriptions now, a "UI Designer" will usually need strong graphic design skills, while an "Interaction Designer" needs to focus more on prototyping, task analysis, etc. There are other terms you will run into, such as Information Architecture, Information Design, etc. When done well, all of the practitioners should use a "design" process of clearly understanding the user and the need, coming up with many good solutions, and narrowing to the best. Hope this helps, Andrea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=28385 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
