Interaction Design

Advice for product innovation, design, and development
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Making a Complex Device (Feel) Simple
We’ve noticed a common thread running through all our work—research, strategy, mechanical and electrical engineering, industrial and interaction design—we make the complex simple.
2024 09 04 Consumer Wellness App that Clicks HERO
How to Design a Consumer Wellness App That Clicks
53% of digital health apps are uninstalled within 30 days of download. How can you design a consumer wellness app that engages and retains users?
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What Can You Learn About Product Development from HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’?
Silicon Valley really speaks to us as interaction designers, user researchers, a mechanical engineers, and software engineers. There have been many times we wanted to jump into the screen and right the ship.
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The Happy Marriage of Industrial Design and User Interface Design
More and more, people are conditioned to interact with their objects. Products developed according to a siloed industrial design process have little chance of fulfilling these new expectations.
2024 08 27 Automotive Cockpit HMI HERO
On Your Mark, Get Set, Go: Takeaways from Automotive Cockpit HMI
How do you create an in-car interface that is engaging, exciting, easy to use, and doesn’t distract the driver?
2024 08 21 Headless Provisioning HERO
What Is ‘Headless Provisioning,’ and How Can We Make It Easier for Users?
Headless provisioning is part of the unboxing experience — specifically, it’s the part when a user connects the device to the Internet for the first time. Unfortunately this process is often confusing for users.
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How to Use FigJam to Collaborate on Sketches
We use FigJam to collaborate and share our sketches and early thinking internally and with our clients. Here’s how we do it.
2024 08 13 Branding and Joy HERO
Branding and Joy (A Love Story)
Once upon a time, branding was good for companies but not so good for consumers. That’s no longer the story.
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You May Be Looking at Subject Matter Expertise the Wrong Way
Should you hire industry outsiders to design your new product? Maybe.
2024 08 01 UX Life or Death HERO
UX, The Difference Between Life And Death?
In certain industries, a poor user experience isn’t just suboptimal—it's dangerous.
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When Smartphone Patterns Don’t Apply: Designing User Interfaces for Specialized Contexts
The most glaring difference between a smartphone and other UI-centric products is that a smartphone as a device doesn’t consider specific context of use. Here are some scenarios where smartphone patterns might not work.
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Design Lessons from Smartphones: Universal Interaction Design Principles for All Devices
Want your product to “look, feel, and act like an iPhone"? You can rely on some fundamental design principles that are universal to all mobile device experiences — many of which are informed by the ubiquity of smartphone and tablet devices.
2024 07 12 next new normal HERO
The Next New Normal in Technology and Interaction Design
We’ve identified technologies that will cause big and small shifts in the next few years and looked at how they are changing the practice of interaction design.
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Don’t Let Order Bias Distort User Research
We’re passionate advocates for user research and the critical role it plays in product design. But not all research is equal.
2024 06 25 UX Design Orchestra HERO
All I Really Need to Know About UX Design I Learned from the Orchestra
The clarinet led me to an exciting music career. Along the way, the clarinet also taught me six user experience design lessons.
2024 06 19 Usability Lab HERO
The Case for Product Usability Testing in Simulated Environments
Why do we regularly transform our usability lab into a kitchen, hospital room, garage, bathroom, living room? It’s not because we’re filming a movie.
2024 06 04 ICU cockpit HERO
Why Can’t an ICU Be More Like a Cockpit?
ICUs need a more integrated source of relevant information to help physicians make better decisions and fewer mistakes.
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Diversity means better design
Diversity on a design team is important for many reasons.
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Making Data Work Harder for Healthcare
As part of athenahealth’s efforts to showcase the advantages of its network-enabled healthcare IT service over stand-alone software, altr was brought in to work with the athena team to create a simple performance assessment and optimization tool.
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Personalized Digital Health: The Opportunity and Our Responsibility
People are now more willing to share personal health information online. What’s the responsibility of digital marketers in the health and pharmaceutical space?
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A Plan for Integrating Hardware and Software
To build better products, development teams need to integrate the hardware and software development processes. The design thinking mindset could provide the means to enable this reunification.
2024 03 26 Interaction Design Strategies for Io T Products That Connect HERO
Interaction Design Strategies for IoT Products That Connect
Only connected devices that connect deeply with their users will have staying power. How do you strategize interaction design for IoT products customers will love?
2024 03 19 Who Knows Best Designing User Control AI HERO
Who Knows Best? Designing User Control in the Age of AI
How much agency should a machine be allowed? For both medical devices and cars, the potential to save lives is very real. But the consequences of things going wrong could be catastrophic.
2024 03 01 LED touch interface HERO
Developing a Product with an LED and Touch User Interface
Sometimes the simplest designs are the most difficult to get right. Here's how we approach the design of a low-information-density user interface.
2024 03 13 AI Trust Usability2 HERO
AI in Medicine: Establishing Trust Through Usability
In many areas of healthcare where AI has great potential, use of the technology is still in its infancy. In these realms where it’s slower to catch on, a common obstacle to adoption is lack of trust.
2024 03 12 3 UX best practices med product design HERO
3 UX Best Practices for Medical Product Designers
A few months ago, we shared our thoughts on three UX trends reshaping medical product design. Here are a few suggestions on how to incorporate those trends into your medical device UX design efforts.
2024 01 24 Io T Changing Industrial Design HERO
How the Internet of Things is Changing Industrial Design
Several years ago, someone gifted me with Twine, an Internet-connected 2.5 square box that can be “programmed” in plain English, without needing to know how to code.
2023 11 27 Making Tech Accessible HERO
Making Tech Accessible: How To Bake Accessibility into Software Development
At Delve, we believe that mobile, voice, and “interfaceless” applications should consider accessibility before the first line of code is written or the first wireframe is constructed.
2023 10 20 Io T product making movie HERO
How Making an IoT Product Is Like Making a Movie
Creating a connected device is a bit like making a movie: it has a beginning, middle, and end; challenges to overcome; and an ultimately victorious hero, the user.
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‘Tell, Don’t Ask’ Is a Design Principle for Simplified Embedded Systems
There are an infinite number of ways to write the software for an embedded system. How do you decide which way is the right way?
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Calm Technology in the Era of Push Notifications
In a world of “ubiquitous computing,” how might technology communicate information without hijacking a person’s attention?
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On-Ramp To IoT: Prototyping Your Connected Device
You've grasped the basic anatomy of an IoT device, identified how you’ll connect with and begin to communicate with the cloud, and selected a cloud service provider. It’s time to get prototyping.
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On-Ramp To IoT: Selecting a Cloud Provider
Make sure your provider uses a well-known and secure method for communicating.
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Rugged IoT: Creative Solutions for Extreme IoT Product Design
Delve has long been a go-to shop for creating rugged, mission-critical products. The communications equipment required for IoT devices adds an extra twist.
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Measuring ROI for a Usable User Interface, Part 2
Why should you invest in a usable user interface?
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Measuring ROI for a Usable User Interface, Part 1
Where do you fall on the Usability Maturity Ladder?
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On-Ramp to IoT: Anatomy of a Connected Product
Connecting a device to the Internet adds layers of complexity.
Med device industry learn from consumer HERO
What the Medical Device Industry Can Learn from Consumer Product Development Practices
Today’s users of medical devices expect a consumer-level experience. How can medtech firms make the shift?
2023 10 13 Making Wearables That Stick HERO
Making Wearables That Stick
A bottom-line approach drives meaningless products. Here are four guidelines for making meaningful wearable tech.
2023 12 11 Non Finito Prototyping HERO
Non-Finito Prototyping: A New Technique for Digital-Physical Product Design
In art, an unfinished work remains unfinished. In design, an unfinished work opens up possibilities for the user.
Digital physical workflow HERO
Using Digital-Physical Workflows to Master Integrated Product Design
Digital-physical workflows help us envision what needs to happen in the digital world and the physical world, as well as where the two need to work together.
2024 01 03 Hicks Law HERO
Use Hick’s Law to Design Intuitive Products That Users Love
Regardless of what you're designing, the options you present to users should be simple and straightforward.
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7 Principles for Designing Great Digital-Physical Products
Adding a sensor or touchscreen to just about any product has become cheap and straightforward. But it doesn't always make things better for the user.
2023 10 02 3 ux trends reshaping med device HERO
3 UX Trends Reshaping Medical Product Design
The acceleration of tech, and especially the mobile revolution, has deeply impacted both the consumer and medical device industries.
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How Design for Misuse Creates Safer Products
Users often go rogue, using products in ways they weren’t designed to be used. Design for misuse is a way to counteract this.
2023 11 03 7 Ix D design principles for Io T HERO
7 Interaction Design Principles for IoT Product Designers
Interaction designers have spent decades figuring out the best way to build an interface from scratch. A lot of what we know translates well to smart products.
2023 09 15 designing Io T medical device HERO
Designing an IoT Medical Device? Four Factors To Consider
Given the maze of use cases and associated certifications, designing an IoT medical device may take longer and cost more than you expect. Take the shortest path to a completed project by considering four factors.
2024 06 11 Start with UX 3 Ways Kickstart HERO
Start with UX: 3 Quick and Easy Ways To Kickstart Your Product Design Project
We offer three UX “starter packs” to meet clients where they are. In addition to making product design more accessible, each approach puts user experience (UX) at the heart of the process.
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How Will AI Impact Medical Devices?
Fresh from our webinar, AI & Medical Device Development, we'd like to share a few takeaways from the discussion.
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Touchscreens Become Tactile
Touchscreens are now tactile. This may have big implications for medical devices and vehicle infotainment systems, where safety and error-reduction are paramount.
2023 03 07 med device mri nest HERO
How to Design a Medical Device as Safe as an MRI and as Intuitive as a Nest
Medical device manufacturers need to design for a new kind of user. This has big implications not just for the devices they design but also for how they do business.
2023 03 03 medtech surprising HERO
3 Surprising Findings from Our Latest MedTech Industry Survey
While reviewing the early data from our ongoing research on trends in the medical device industry, three unexpected findings caught our eye.
2023 02 28 consumerization of healthcare HERO
How the Consumerization of Healthcare is Transforming Medical Device Design
Patients are becoming empowered consumers of healthcare. They bring to medical devices the high expectations formed from their experiences with highly intuitive consumer products—as well as greater risk.
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A Better Way to Develop A Medical Device with Digital and Physical Elements (Part 2 of 2)
We’ve been experimenting with a new methodology for designing medical devices with hardware/software interactions. Here’s what a new, holistic development process might look like.
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A Better Way to Develop a Medical Device with Digital and Physical Elements (Part 1 of 2)
Next-generation medical devices with hardware-software interactions need a new, holistic development methodology.
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Biggest Innovations in 2022 That Influenced Product Design
A coffee pod system without a plastic pod. Headphones that read your mind. A touch-sensitive prosthetic hand. Check out the biggest innovations to influence product design in 2022.
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3 Product Design Best Practices to Follow
How to create a successful product – whether you're designing a product that's physical, digital, or somewhere in between.
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The Role of Human Factors in Product Design
A primer on what, how and when the discipline of human factors is used in the design and development of products.
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Five Tips for Moderating Remote Usability Studies
We've been doing remote research since before COVID-19, but the pandemic gave given us a great opportunity to hone our craft.
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From Digital to Digital-Physical Product Design: 5 Tips for Becoming a Multilingual Design Practitioner
Teach yourself to become a multilingual digital-physical product design practitioner using five simple strategies.
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CES 2020: Day one
We have a team roaming the massive Las Vegas Convention Center today at the Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES. We'll be adding to this blog post throughout the day as we find cool stuff to share.
2024 01 03 anthropomorphic HERO
How Anthropomorphic Form Shapes Product Design
Humans are drawn to anthropomorphic form in product design. Here's how industrial and interaction designers can use this as a tool.
Goodbye Industrial
Goodbye Industrial, Hello Design
I’d prefer to never say words Industrial Designer again.
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How to Use Mapping to Determine the Design of Your Controls
Good mapping makes products easier and more intuitive to use. Done well, it can create a powerful connection between a product and its users.
2023 10 Reducing Med Device Risk HERO
Reducing Medical Device Risk with Usability Testing and uFMEAs
Medical devices are commonly recalled due to usability issues that can be prevented with human factors plans and uFMEAs.
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What’s a ‘Nudge’ in Product Design?
Nudge is a concept rooted in behavioral science that describes how minor changes in product design can markedly affect individual behavior.
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2018 Year in Review
The beginning of a new year is a great time for reflection – and what better to reflect on than the last year in design and innovation?
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Intern Q&A: How to make PIE
Our summer interns worked on a very cool project to make a Virtual Reality prototyping tool called PIE. They learned that making PIE isn't that easy.
2024 Work More Collaboratively with Interaction Designers HERO
Four Ways to Work More Collaboratively with Interaction Designers
Designing appliances increasingly involves and interaction design component. How do you integrate this skill into your development process effectively?
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Life cycle considerations in the age of software-enabled products
As more products become software-enabled, our notions of expected performance and life cycle are changing.
2024 02 21 fourth industrial revolution HERO
The Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Promise and Challenges of Industrial IoT
IoT makes sense for industrial applications where there are endless opportunities to monitor and automate.
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User-centered design is on the menu
Launching a restaurant is the ultimate personal exercise in user-centered design.
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Human-centered design ... but even more human.
Slowing down and practicing mindfulness in design can lead to better products.
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User Experience Research at LinkedIn
Julie Norvaisas from LinkedIn stopped by our offices to share tips on how they research User Experience to deliver the best products and services.
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Poetry in motion
Fighting bugs, storms and heat, design camp provides the challenge of putting ideas into interconnected motion.
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Is your company in control of its user experience?
Consumers have access to a hodgepodge of information on brands that they never had access to before, which makes it tough to control the brand experience.
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The Good Enough Design of the Nintendo Switch
The Switch has a lot of great features, but the modular design leads to some clunky compromises. Ultimately, does it matter?
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How to Give Design a Seat at the Lean Startup Table
Design Thinking and Lean Startup are two approaches that can co-exist with some creativity and flexibility to create a better result.
2023 09 15 designing for healthcare 1 4 HERO pt2 integration
Designing for healthcare part 2: Mapping the way to seamless integration
Mapping user experiences and systems can help you create more delightful healthcare experiences.
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How Design for Accessibility Drives Innovation for All
Products designed for accessibility end up making life better for everyone.
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UX Takeaways from Disney: Wherever Possible, Make It Personal
Disney fosters a greater sense of fantasy by concealing the mechanisms of personalization.
2024 04 26 moments that matter HERO1
Moments That Matter: How Interactions Foster Brand Loyalty
When we look back on an experience, we craft a narrative based on memory and emotion and the sum of our experiences. The same is true of how we process our experiences with brands.
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The Role of User Experience in Product Design
This presentation provides an overview of user experience design, its origins, some tools and processes and how the practice may evolve in the future.
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Our 15 Favorite Branded Interactions
We polled the office on favorite branded interactions and narrowed everyone’s nominations down to 15 brands who do it well. Here’s the list of brands and the interactions we consider to be successful.
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Can Interaction Design Save the Internet of Things?
There was a lot of talk about the Internet of Things this year at SXSW Interactive 2015. And yes, there were a lot of cool Internet-things.
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Man and machine
Recent workplace deaths involving robotic arms are a new variant of the dangers that come with using powerful tools.
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AmpStrip Design Wins Spark Award
Our industrial design for the AmpStrip, a 24/7 heart rate and activity monitor, recently won a Gold Spark Award.
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Beyond the Screen: Design a High-Impact, Holistic User Experience Across the Entire Customer Journey
The worlds of physical and digital product design are on a collision course. Interaction designers should take note.
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Designing a Family Internet of Things (FIoT)
Connected devices too often rely on a "master operator" framework that ignores the wonderfully messy realities of family life.
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When better isn’t good enough
Want a Sansa or an iPod? Sometimes getting to market first is better than making a better product.
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The Internet of (Disconnected) Things
Many SxSW Interactive talks pondered the future of connected devices. What we can address now and how we may bridge the user-experience gap for the future?
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Deconstructing Fidelity
The more real something looks and feels, the more likely it is that you’ll receive actionable feedback to validate your design or inform your next iteration.
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What does Spiderman have to do with user experience design?
UX design is maturing and none too soon for the technology challenges and opportunities we face.
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Six Things to Consider as the Internet of Things Intersects Medical Devices
As the consumer-driven IoT culture, which moves fast and iterates frequently, meets the highly regulated med device industry, designers face new challenges.
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Wearables at CES 2015: Enough with the activity trackers!
At CES 2015, activity trackers were the bandwagon that many companies jumped on. Really? Isn't there something better to do with this technology?
2023 12 22 experience design healthcare HERO
Experience Design and Healthcare: Wicked Problem and Inspiring Challenge
Experience design is a field prepared to help healthcare workers effectively use new diagnostic technologies, but it is a pretty wicked problem to tackle.
2024 05 02 ID from Mars Ix D from Venus HERO
IDers Are from Mars, IxDers Are from Venus
No need to pick sides. Become a hybrid designer instead.
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Leonardo da Vinci and UX: The Interview
How might Leonardo da Vinci operate as a UX designer in the year 2014? I sent him a time machine and asked him.
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From Human Factors to User Experience: What’s In A Name?
We recently changed the name of our user interface design team to Interaction Design. The latter encompasses the dynamics of a user’s interaction with a system — including the user’s perceptual, cognitive, and physical interaction with the system, as well as the system’s response to the user.
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How To Protect UI with Design Patents
User interface design patents are more important than ever. Here are tips for designers on how to make the UI patent process work for you.
"Delve brings strengths that we don't have, which is why I'm looking forward to working with them again."

Vamsee Pamula, Founder & President, Baebies