On Jun 22, 2008, at 7:46 PM, Jeff Howard wrote:
I remember a few snippits of conversations while I was at Carnegie Mellon about why there wasn't a bachelors degree in interaction design. Some of it might be a question of maturity (both the discipline and the students). If you could build such a program, would it be a good thing to have 21 year old interaction designers running around?
Yep, exactly. I'd alluded to this earlier in the threads... At least in terms of how CMU approaches "interaction design" as a strategic art of thought, innovation, and connection-making across disciplines (for ex: the applicability of interaction ideas/methods to services or management), that would be too out of reach for most undergrads who may lack the maturity and sufficient real-world experience to make those leaps (and turn that into something meaningful, productive, etc.)
However, an undergrad degree program rooted in the more tactical, digital-craft related aspects would be more appropriate given the students' skill and thought level. With perhaps senior level studios that touch upon or hint at those broader interaction areas, getting into service design, social issues, etc. And if the student wishes to pursue that level of inquiry and study even further, hey go for the master's. That's what I did :-) My senior ID project (some combined phone/PDA/wallet thing) was really an investigation of the service design of geo-location and electronic cash mediated by a digital hybrid device--but I didn't realize that at all, I just "sensed" there was something to design bigger than the artifact. By the time I reached my senior year in ID my "eye sight" had expanded to other forms and possibilities of design that I was itching to explore further. I would expect that any worthy design degree program would inspire students in such a fashion...
Also, just to point out: neither undergrad nor graduate education is meant to train/educate on every single issue or lesson of the profession...else it would be a 6+ yr degree costing 300K! The point is to give a baseline level of "necessary and sufficient" skills/ideas/ theory to get enough of a start (or re-fresher/new insights for those already experienced) in the profession. And to hopefully provoke an insatiable curiosity to learn more, however that may transpire...
Uday Gajendar Sr. Interaction Designer Voice Technology Group Cisco | San Jose ________________________________________________________________ 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
