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FYI
An interaction model is defined in various ways. For example, the Microsoft Holo lens team explains the interaction model based on the forms of interaction for HoloLens such as gaze, gesture and voice. AWS, on the other hand, introduced Alexa as an interaction model that connects the user and the cloud. For now, we'll be focusing on and limiting the definition within digital product and strategy.
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As interaction designers, one of our key tasks is to create an interaction model during the project. The interaction model maps out how users navigate and access objectives and lets us communicate that to the team, stakeholders, and clients.
An interaction model connects what the user already knows and understands from a similar experience (mental model) to product or service features to create a high-level overview of how the user engages in the experience over time.
Conceptual model, mental model and interaction model — sketched by @Anonymous
Interaction models can be applied to both small and large scales. For instance, an interaction model might get into the details of how a user adjusts the settings on a single product, or it might show how the user navigates multiple apps to access various services.
If an interaction model is done well, it provides the user good learnability and predictability and helps them understand how to act and move to the right place to achieve their objectives. The other benefit of creating an interaction model as a tool is that it helps designers to communicate how the user research findings are and will be related to the digital product creation. It enables designers, developers, stakeholders and/or clients to understand and explain how users navigate from objects to actions within a system.
An interaction model connects what the user already knows and understands from a similar experience (mental model) to features of a product or service, to create a high-level overview of how the user engages in the experience over time.
System 1: the first version of Apple Macintosh OS — Apple, 1984
Let's look at one of the most famous interaction models: the desktop metaphor that was introduced through the Apple Macintosh in 1984.
Instead of interacting via esoteric text-based commands as most computers back then, Apple represented everything as items on the visual equivalent of your physical workspace—the desktop. You create and open files, which can then be stored in folders, and applications like the calculator looked like their real-world counterpart. You can move and arrange all these elements around as you would things on your actual desktop.