The authors of Thoughtful Interaction Design go beyond the usual technical concerns of usability and usefulness to consider interaction design from a design perspective. The shaping of digital artifacts is a design process that influences the form and functions of workplaces, schools, communication, and culture; the successful interaction designer must use both ethical and aesthetic judgment to create designs that are appropriate to a given environment. This book is not a how-to manual, but a collection of tools for thought about interaction design. Working with information technology—called by the authors "the material without qualities"—interaction designers create not a static object but a dynamic pattern of interactivity.

考虑到交互设计的作者超越了可用性和实用性的通常技术考虑，从设计的角度考虑交互设计。数字作品的塑造是一个影响工作场所、学校、交流和文化的形式和功能的设计过程；成功的交互设计师必须使用道德和审美判断来创建适合特定环境的设计。这本书不是一本操作手册，而是一本关于交互设计的工具集。利用作者称之为“没有质量的材料”的信息技术，交互设计师创造的不是静态对象，而是动态交互模式。