Coming in VERY late (for me). 1. I DO think this is a definition problem. Or more accurately a lack of consensus around both definition and practice.
2. I also think this is a PR problem. They are interrelated. In this message, I'll take on #1. More about PR coming. Andy, I wish it was that easy. I just started teaching an interaction design graduate studio. These are industrial design grad students (for the most part) who want some experience in IxD. Everyone of them want to know what's the difference between "interaction design" and "interactive design". At SCAD we have different programs using both of those names. My take on all this is that it depends on context unfortunately, b/c it adds a layer of complication. I"m growing toward the opinion that "interaction design" (wait for it) doesn't exist for a whole group of people. as a construct, it just won't map against anything that is relevant to them. I.e. 99.9% of the non-design world. While "interactive design" is VERY meaningful as it describes the design practice of giving form to interactive media. (Yes, it is multi-disciplinary and that's a different issue right now.) Now, the other .1% are designers who may or may not currently or in the future as part of their practice have interactivity as part of the solutions to what they design. To these people Interaction Design is a lens or framework they have to incorporate within what they already do: software/interactivity, architecture, service, industrial design, graphic design, etc. In the case of Interactive/software, service (and I'd argue a huge segment of ID), I would say that interaction design is a requirement to understand and have a level of mastery of in order to do well. Now putting all this into context, I believe if I was to come up with a real definition at this point, it would concentrate on Behavior and there are 2 axis to behavior. Interaction Design is a design discipline used within many different design practices applying specific theories of current understanding of human behavior & psychology towards: * Designing the behavior (I.e. what products are listening for & how they should respond) of products or systems in response to human & environmental stimulus. * Design the encouragement or facilitation of human behaviors through the above designs. The overall goal of applying interaction design within any design practice is to not only make products & systems more useful, usable and desirable, but to create moments of engagement through an understanding of not only efficiency within these systems but also of applying a definition of aesthetics that goes beyond visual and includes: audio, tactile, & kinetic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40375 ________________________________________________________________ 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
