“…watching a tool in use is the same as observing a conversation. everything, in a sense, has its inputs and outputs. From that point of view, the boundary between “interactive” and “noninteractive” tools start to dissolve.
Interaction design is largely about the meaning that people assign to things and events, and how people try to express meanings. So to learn from any tool, interactive or not, go watch people using it. You’ll hear them talk to the tool. You’ll see them assign all sorts of surprising interpretations to shapes, colors, positions, dings, dents and behaviors. You’ll see them fall in love with a thing as it becomes elegantly worn. You’ll see them come to hate a thing and choose to ignore it, sell it, or even smash it. And I guarantee you won’t have to do much of this before you encounter someone who makes a mental mapping you would never dream possible. And you’ll learn from that.
I’ve been using tea kettles as an example in some of my teaching, because on the one hand kettles are so familiar to us, and they’re only interactive in a borderline, predictable, mechanical sort of a way. But once you start to examine the meanings involved with kettles in use, you realize they have things to say that people would love to know, but most designs allow them to be said. “I’m getting hot, but I have no water in me.” “My water is a good temperature for a child’s cocoa.” “I’m too hot to touch.” “I need to be cleaned.” And so on.
Marc Rettig, Founding Principal, Fit Associates in Dan Saffer’s Designing for Interaction