Interactive vs. Interaction: People get get confused by terms that are so similar. To define the concepts more clearly, consider whether a designer is affecting the system or influencing how a user clicks around a website.
| Interactive Designers | Interaction Designers |
|---|---|
| Interactive designers tend to think of the web as a series of branded moments that occur through a series of frames that a user clicks through. | Interaction designers are more concerned about the intent of the user and how they can help them accomplish a task. |
Why should you care?
Well, we're not sure you should. Terminology varies in the web world because it's still very young. That's ok for designers. Designers still have to sell themselves anyway— our industry is so fragmented that the collective benefits of a unified industry don't really provide benefits. The terminology someone in our industry chooses is revealing, though, and gives us some insights into where they fall on the interaction vs. interactive design spectrum.
Ultimately what's best for a company depends on several factors. As with the Flash vs. Javascript debate, it's not whether one is good and another is bad, it's how the concept is implemented. Many web sites are interactive, but looking at site designs with a critical eye toward interaction can drastically improve a user's perception of a site as they click through.