Section 1. Introducing Writing for Interaction

Welcome to Writing for Interaction.

Creating software and web applications requires collaboration and coordination between teams and groups, each working toward the common goal of providing the best possible user experience for their customers.

While some product features and development roles, such as programmer, are clearly defined, the information users interact with and rely on for using your application, and the role of writing that information are less well understood.

This section introduces the concept of the information experience and how the flow of information provided within the user interface impacts how your customers interact with your application and their overall perception of the user experience. It also describes the components of the information ecosystem and how the information experience is part of that ecosystem. The chapter also discusses the difference between writing for web sites and writing for web applications.

Because teams use development models and processes to create applications, the section describes the various models used by most software development teams. It describes user-centered design (UCD) as the basis for keeping your customers at the forefront of application design. Finally, the section describes the importance of team collaboration and how the role of information experience designer interacts with the rest of the team, to create a successful information experience for your users.