On Jan 19, 2008, at 2:01 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: > Imagine this for second, even if it seems a little silly. (Or least > forgive me for my preference in television): In the future, > interaction design is a more mainstream profession, and Bravo decides > to create a reality television series called Interact This! built > around the same model as Project Runway. Now imagine how the > interaction designers would operate on such a show for the > challenges. What exactly would they do?
I would expect it to look a lot like the IDEO shopping cart episode of 60 minutes. Most of the time would be given to research, ideation, and mockups, with the high-fidelity prototype being churned out in the last 10 minutes for the finale. > Maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse here, but digital creates > a well rounded place to start to create a definition that is well > scoped. With code, there many specific things you can do that are > high level enough to be used in multiple mediums, as long as there is > a code component. Without digital or code, the variety of things > "interaction" can be is rather broad and not very well defined. It > could literally be almost anything that involves humans, which for > our practical reality is everything. I'm not buying it. If Black & Decker hires me to help make their next lawnmower easier to use, by golly I've got worthwhile skills and experience to bring to bare. How do you turn it on and off? How do you account for safety issues? If it's electric, how do you charge it, and how does it communicate its status? You can't tell me that the one thing that determines whether or not this would be Interaction Design is the presence or absence of a digital display. Regardless of whether I start it with a mechanical switch or a soft button on a touch- screen, the overarching problem to be solved and the processes I will use to solve it are exactly the same. > I mean... I guess I could do it all, but who has the time? Just because you are an Interaction Designer doesn't mean that you have to design everything that any Interaction Designer has ever designed. Your focus is computer software, as is mine. But if an Interaction Designer ends up specializing in power tools, she's still an Interaction Designer and is still a welcome part of this organization. David Malouf said: > No, I'm not saying that I only want to be in a particular phase. > I'm saying that ideation is more powerful part of the whole than the > craft. > If I can also guide and challenge the craft and validate it and define > how it should come out, than the crafts person then becomes a chisel > weilded by me, or becomes a partner engaged in the same level of > creative composition from our mutually different areas of expertise. I'm right there with you, Dave. Depending on the project, I may end up building the HTML and CSS for the front end of the application. In another project, I'll create Photoshop renderings of screens and write specifications to go with them, and then work with a developer to make sure they get implemented as I intend. For another task, I may do some pencil sketches to work out high-level design and then hand them off to another designer to work out the details. One thing is certain: as our company grows, I get stretched thinner. In the future, I expect to be doing a lot more ideation and direction of others, and a lot less pixel-pushing. Jack Jack L. Moffett Interaction Designer inmedius 412.459.0310 x219 http://www.inmedius.com To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. - Paul Rand ________________________________________________________________ *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
