[IxDA Discuss] What sets the 'best' interaction designers apart?

[Mark Schraad]

Great take David. This gets to the real point of the question!

If I were doing this now... I would find an undergrad school that had  
a design theory or design thinking program. A program that stressed  
the fundamentals and let you dabble in application from ID,  
interiors, architecture, graphic and 3d design. I would also take  
classes in CS, psych (both cog and behavioral), sociology,  
anthropology, business, marketing and engineering. Sounds like a 6  
year degree... but I would spread myself that thin. I would learn a  
second language and learn how to write effectively. The I would work  
for a few years in a design thinking environment (how to find that  
would make a great book all by itself). Then and only then would I go  
back to grad school and study interaction design.

If this was 10 or more years ago, I would definitely agree that  
either industrial design or a good architecture school would be the  
place to go.

Mark


On Feb 3, 2007, at 8:44 AM, David Malouf wrote:

> If, I was to go back to school all over again in this day and age,  
> BOY would
> I do things differently. ;)
>
> If I was an undergrad, I would study Industrial Design. Or maybe  
> find an
> undergraduate minor in IxD. I think SCAD has one. But I would stick  
> to a
> design school.
>
> I choose industrial design (or architecture) because both of these  
> usually
> have aspects of use involved in them and many of their problem sets  
> deal
> with interactivity at some level. But they also really structure  
> themselves
> around studio work.
>
> Yup, I'd do ID with an emphasis in human factors and design  
> research. That's
> what I'd do. ;)
>
> For those of use who came up the dot.com chain-gang with English,  
> Anthro,
> History, Poli Sci, International Studies, Biology, etc. majors and  
> who love
> our adopted careers as designers ... How would you have played it
> differently considering that this organic method of career growth  
> in IxD is
> probably not nearly as doable as it was circa '94-'99? To be  
> honest, as I
> wrote this, I love my past and my growth pattern. I loved being  
> part of a
> huge state college (Berkeley) with all that had to offer in community,
> x-disciplinary studies, etc. so its really hard for me to imagine  
> the design
> school life for myself that I described above. But I think with  
> what I know
> now that's what I would have done diffferently. 20-20 hindsight!
>
> -- dave
>