"We are thinkers, but we get paid to do." This is absolutely true - but - and it might only be my perspective - is that many IxD folks do - a lot - all day long. Many know *what* to do - they don't know *why* they do it. That is the critical piece that the theory does provide. Studio, Crit - all very important. Some say you can get all the theory you need from books and CHI papers, etc. But not to belabor ChristineB's point - but most simply don't do the reading, and a formal grad program may be the only place where they are forced to do the hard work. Doing stuff, making stuff - that's fun, challenging, difficult, etc - but for many, the reading, critical theory, and application of that to real problems is where they slack off. Think about it this way - if you read just one book a month related to IxD, IA, Cog Sci, Design, etc - three years from now you have close to forty books under your belt. That's a lot of knowledge - a lot of best practices, new ideas - things to apply back into your work.
On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 8:23 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Jun 22, 2008, at 10:52 PM, Steve Baty wrote: > > Your course outline seems to me to provide for the latter pretty well, >> whilst allowing for the former if someone sees their niche and quits after 2 >> or 3 years to pursue it. >> > > The most important thing for an IxD is to actually start doing IxD. Learn > the basics, which I think Dan has laid out a pretty good program for, get > the foundations down, and then hit the street and start doing. > > We are thinkers, but we get paid to do. > > > ________________________________________________________________ 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
