Dan Saffer recently asked, “If I asked you to name the most influential interaction design products, you would say…?”

I found this question a bit confusing. It raised a lot of questions. My instinct was to respond by asking, “What product does not involve interaction design?” Next, “What do you mean by product?”

Further, is this a question of form? What is the form of interaction design? How easily can you point to it like you can industrial or communication design? How does this question apply to services and organizations? We can say quite easily, that is a great service, or that organization really works well.

But when (if ever) we hear, “that’s great interaction design,” to what might someone be referring? Is that a true picture of interaction design? Could we answer Dan’s question with democracy, the Holocaust, Christianity?