Getting there: Six meta-principles and interaction design

Principled knowledge is a mark of any established disciplinary practice. Its derivation and validation of varies across disciplines, but HCI has tended towards posthoc (‘a posteriori’) syntheses. We present an alternative a priori approach that is relatively compact and open to inspection. We use John Heskett’s position on the origins of design outcomes to derive six metaprinciples for any design process: receptiveness, expressivity, committedness, credibility, inclusiveness and improvability. Although very abstract, these metaprinciples generate critical insights into existing HCI approaches, identifying gaps in suitability and coverage. Practical value is increased by progressive instantiation of metaprinciples to create first craftspecific, and ultimately project specific, Interaction Design principles. A worthcentred approach is adopted to illustrate progressive instantiation towards a framework of adapted and novel HCI approaches. The internal coherence of the six metaprinciples is shown to provide direct effective support for synergistic progressive instantiation.