[IxDA Discuss] So you want to be an IxD - education

[mark Schraad]

There are a lot of issues involved in recommending a design school. In my case I stayed in Kansas partly because I was there and so as my daughter. I studied under several well published and very highly regarded experts in interaction. Additionally, I was able to customize my curriculum to involve a lot of cognitive and behavioral research... and integrate previous graduate work in marketing, graphics and interface as well as the experience I already had. It would have been a huge waste of time and money for me to go through a more standardized program such as CMU given my experience and career goals. I know a dozen or so graduates from Kansas (a school that NObody thinks of for interaction design) that can go toe-to-toe with anyone I have met from CMU and ITT. Easy to say I am biased... and I am, a bit.

The regiment at Kansas (the design department was formed in 1922 - well before the new bauhaus) is deeply routed in the teachings from IIT, Chuck Owens and others. Sharon Poggenpohl (at one point the head of IIT's Doctoral program) is a former KU professor for instance.

Certainly CMU, Royal, IIT and d.school have the largest collection of famous names and likely the most money... but those are certainly not the only criteria a student should consider. Some may want a cross disciplinary school, others a theory based education, and yet others a more applied course of study. Some may indeed be willing to pay a premium tuition for the surety of having a great job before they graduate - certainly the case at IIT. SImply listing the top schools is not terribly useful. In many cases a single professor can make all the difference in the world.

Mark


On Thursday, September 07, 2006, at 10:41AM, Michael Tuminello <mt at motiontek.com> wrote:

>[Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted material.]
>
>People keep mentioning other programs, but I got the feeling that Dan  
>Saffer was purposefully omitting most of them as recommendations,  
>rather than having left them out as an oversight.
>
>I would be curious to confirm whether that is/is not the case.
>
>I am particular curious if anyone thinks any of the programs in NYC  
>have "arrived" as far as IxD go.
>
>NYU's ITP and Parson's Design and Technology would be the 2 that come  
>to mind as contenders.  I'm not knocking either program, but I get  
>the impression they may not be focused enough on IxD to come up in a  
>discussion of interaction design programs.  I realize this is  
>somewhat of a dead horse, but I still find it surprising NY seems so  
>far behind the curve in HCI and similar programs.  We're no silicon  
>alley, but we have a few computers lying around.  :-)
>
>Michael
>
>
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