I started in the code world and have gradually worked my way up the stack into interaction design, documentation, visual design. At various points along the way I'd take deep dives into one area that I wanted to get stronger in. I was a strong web coder, but wanted to understand visual design better, so I went back to school and took night classes in graphic design, and then practiced this craft. I'd create symbols and icons at work, and design websites in my volunteer work. A couple of years ago I started thinking that I needed a bit more of an academic perspective on the interaction design craft so I went back to grad school evenings.
Funny now I've turned almost full circle, having become a strong visual designer for application skins and an informed interaction designer, but a bit rusty on Javascript. Just took advantage of the O'Reilly sale at Bookpool to order newer editions of longtime favorite client-side coding reference books - time to brush up. I kind of expect that this is what life in the interaction design craft looks like from now on: starting from a core of strength, branching out, learning new things, re-grounding in your core domain when you need to. But always learning, always growing. As for artsy, I've been around arts and artists all my life (my mother was one, my wife teaches art) but my background is music. Strange but true story: when I took my first drawing class a few years ago, I wasn't sure which hand I drew with. I'm sort of weirdly ambidextrous (write right-handed, mouse left, power tools left, hand tools right, piano both...). My teacher was patient with me. We liked the flow of my drawings left-handed, but I was a bit more accurate right-handed. Still can't draw freehand for beans though, and am ever so thankful for the fabulous assistive technologies of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Visio. The big carry-over from my music background was that daily practice improves your abilities, so I make time to do something in Photoshop every day. Michael Micheletti On Dec 19, 2007 9:43 AM, Lukeisha Carr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Would anyone say that one must have an "artsy or visually creative" knack > when pursuing "interaction" design, as apposed to "visual" design? > > In other words, what do you think is the one or few talents or skills one > needs to have to be successful in the IxD arena? > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
