Start with a more formed objective
I started writing the post with a very vague idea of what aspects I would be covering. As a result of this, a very large amount of time. A quick mind-map or post-it session prior to starting would have worked wonders on this problem, I think.
Note sources
Initially, I was reading articles and posts rapidly to try and better form an idea of my topic, as a result, I often navigated away from pages after reading them before having a chance to take a note of the URL. After a couple of days, I began to use a notepad document to quickly take notes of pages or quotes I found interesting.
Visual Notes
Notepad served well enough until my notes began to mount up and resulted in clutter. At this point, I decided to try using InDesign to keep my notes more tidy. This worked wonders and my notes became more easily readable as well as being far nicer to look at in general. This did, however, have the major drawback of being extremely engaging. As a result, I found myself almost spending more time tweaking my notes, changing the colours and positioning quotes than I did working on the post and had to force myself to simplify the format.
Pick a more manageable topic
Both Interaction Design and design it’s self are inordinately broad and complex topics, to include the two in a single blog post is unreasonable. Additionally, due to the fact that Interaction Design is a relatively new field, I found there to be a great deal of disagreement over what it actually means to be an Interaction Designer.
Target Audience
I cannot possibly count the number of blank looks and subsequent queries I get after having mentioned “Digital Interaction Design” to people and I don’t think I have ever given them the same answer twice. For this reason, my post is aimed at those who may have just heard about DIxD in passing and are unsure about it. Despite consciously targetting the post at those who haven’t really heard about Interaction design, I can’t help but feel it was partially for my own benefit as well. Although I’m studying the subject, there are often times when I’m not actually sure what it is that I’m studying in the grand scheme of things. Simply writing this article -despite the fact that It’s nothing I wasn’t aware of- really helped me to organize my thoughts and gain a much clearer image in my head of the meaning of Interaction Design and will hopefully help others do the same.