Hey Chris -
As someone working in the field and as a Virginia graduate, I would
say I think you can relax for two reasons.
1. Virginia is an excellent school
2. Very few people are assured jobs based on their undergraduate
course of study
There was no undergrad program available for most people working in
the field now, including the people who are writing the books that you
would be reading if there WAS a decent undergrad program. :-)
I majored in Asian Studies (Chinese) and English, and minored in
Oriental Languages (Japanese). I took one computer science class
(Pascal, I think) and dropped it because I had too many credits and
because I thought it was boring. I didn't really get interested in
design at all until after I graduated. I'm not holding myself up as
any sort of exemplar in the field, but I do get paid to do this.
Writing is a critical skill, so you could do worse than to be an
English major, if you end up not liking the HCI dept.
If you maintain your interest in the field and do well in school, I
don't think any doors will be closed to you in IxD as a result of
attending U.Va. You'd be surprised just how many products are out
there in need of better design. They can't all get CM (or SCAD)
grads. :-)
Best of luck -
Michael
On May 18, 2009, at 6:18 PM, Chris wrote:
Thanks for your time.
I've recently been accepted to the University of Virginia for
undergraduate work. I like this university a great deal, but I'm
concerned that because they seem to be lacking in a design department
(except arts), it may be suboptimal for preparation toward a career in
Human-Computer Interaction Design.
I have read the obligatory two pages of Google results, as well as
contacted Mr. Dan Saffer and several others in the past about how to
go about planning an undergraduate curriculum. Specifically I read
Dan's Article * on this very topic, but he has since then posted
more ideas which I am unable to recover in a Google search with the
time I've allotted for this project today.
In any case, I have taken to the idea of designing an
interdisciplinary curriculum based on the best programs in practice
at this time. I've read over Carnegie Mellon's bachelor's in
HCI**, and I believe many (if not all) of the courses will be
available at UVA. I will continue updating here as I gather more
information, but the primary reason for my posting is that I would
like to gather this community's opinions on the following:
1) Is HCI or any related discipline a reasonable undergraduate
degree? Why or why not?
2) How can this (or a similar) first undergraduate program be
approached in such a way that it will both provide a strong
understanding of the work involved in Interaction Design, and grant
proof of competence (and thus fulfill the requirement of HCI
undergraduate education on job applications)? What would the
degree-specific courses look like?
3) Speaking in terms of UVA specifically, can a degree be conferred
from a listing of courses that are not tailored specifically to
design itself? Their courses range from cognitive science to
computer science to art to human factors and interactivity. I plan
to provide a list of applicable coursework from their course
catalog*** as I learn more.
4) What other thoughts do you have in regard to this subject?
I'm keen on designing for interactivity and I would like my
curriculum to mirror these interests. Thank you very much for any
consideration or advice toward a creative solution to these issues.
--Chris
* "So you want to be an Interaction Designer"
http://adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000656.php
** Carnegie Mellon's Secondary Undergraduate Curriculum
http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/undergraduate-major-curriculum
*** University of Virginia Course Catalog (I will be pulling courses
primarily from the College of Arts and Sciences).
http://etg08.itc.virginia.edu/cod.pages/20092/cod.html
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