ABSTRACT

We live surrounded by digital technologies, which facilitate our daily tasks and condition our understanding of material culture.

In this scenario, digital counterparts are gradually replacing an increasing amount of print media. However, some of them are still advantageous when used as print media, such as books. Due to their materials, techniques and the experience they allow people through physical manipulation, books are in need to be preserved.

Nevertheless, to maintain their use and importance, they could reflect changes and updates to accompany today’s society, filled with digital artefacts and focused on users. Interaction design, a discipline that studies behaviour, could help in this context.

To prove this argument, we developed an experimental printed object with educational purposes, more specifically an interactive manual. We chose recognised features in digital artefacts and included them in a book, which addresses explanation of interaction design for beginners. It was done using low and high fidelity prototypes. We developed usability tests with two groups of potential users, through observation of use and questionnaires.

This project intends to demonstrate interaction design as an attribute to foster innovation in book conception, as well as in developing design projects more user-conscious. The result is an interactive book that describes its content but also tries to establish connections, with conveyed information and its users.