re: Katie's call to "define design" I have taken a different approach. I define the context of use of the term instead of the term itself. Why? B/c I may actually want to use a generic term like "design" in as many different ways as we have already discussed and then some. Further, it just gets WAY too difficult to have to find synonyms for all the other ways the term is in use in informal language already. So trying to define it feels like an impossible task.
But Katie, if I said that "graphic design" or "fashion design" is a design centered creative craft and discipline, would you REALLY need me to define "design"? Of course not. Why can't I be using "design" exactly the same way here? "Interaction Design; You know, just like graphic design or fashion design or information design, but about interactions between products, services and humans." That seems pretty simple, no? Almost too simple ... ;) No offense Katie, but the only reason I hear people get in a huff about "design" is b/c they aren't designers. "I do IxD, therefore why are you excluding, ME?!?" ... Well, if you are doing it, and you are doing design like a graphic designer or fashion designer would, then why feel excluded? If you are just engineering interactions based on analytical theory and research dissection, then I would say you ain't doing interaction design ... you are just creating interactions. creation and design is not the same thing. I can draw, but that doesn't mean I'm doing graphic design. Same goes true here. Yes, to the above example, I can even apply "graphic design" principles against my simple drawing, but again, that doesn't mean I was practicing graphic design. The purpose of definitions is to define inclusion, ergo it is used to define exclusion. It is not bad, it just is. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23732 ________________________________________________________________ *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
