The Introduction to About Face 3 contains a very simple venn diagram that I first described here on this list:
I like to think of User Experience Design as a 3-circle Venn diagram, where the circles represent Form, Behavior, and Content design. The circles each intersect with each other. IxD occupies the Behavior circle, but overlaps with the Form and Content circles to some degree. IA occupies the Content circle, but overlaps with Form and Behavior to some degree. And Industrial Design (and Visual Design) occupy the Form circle, but overlap with Content and Behavior to some degree. As others have said, there are clearly overlaps in skill sets in these design practices; it is (IMHO) more a matter of focus and where the depth of expertise lies. --- Design of content, of course, refers to the design of its logical and spatial structure, as Todd and others have described it. BTW, I would definitely consider labels to be part of content and in need of structuring: when I was at Bose, we had a person whose primary job was to develop and execute the structure of labels for back panels of devices (with input from IxDs and IDs). The point being that these are complementary areas of design that, while they may not have equal weighting or visibility for a particular product or design, each contribute uniquely and significantly to the user experience. I would humbly suggest that more can be accomplished by practitioners of these fields working together and leveraging their strengths and knowledge bases than by quibbling over the self-evidently fuzzy boundaries at their intersections. So, now, can we all be friends? :) Robert. Robert Reimann IxDA Seattle Associate Creative Director frog design Seattle, WA On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel <[email protected]>wrote: > > On Mar 31, 2009, at 2:38 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: > > Incidentally, whether intentional or not, the appearance here is that IxD >> is trying to become the "dominant" field in UX and not acknowledge that the >> IA field can or has evolved. >> > > Just to be clear, I'm not attempting to state that Dan is crafting this > argument, or that he's the one behind this appearance, but it is a common > perception that comes up during discussions I've had with practitioners in > the field who do both IA and IxD among other things. > > > > Cheers! > > Todd Zaki Warfel > Principal Design Researcher > Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. > ---------------------------------- > Contact Info > Voice: (215) 825-7423 > Email: [email protected] > AIM: [email protected] > Blog: http://toddwarfel.com > Twitter: zakiwarfel > ---------------------------------- > In theory, theory and practice are the same. > In practice, they are not. > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > ________________________________________________________________ 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
