[IxDA Discuss] More interactive jobs / less interactive talent ?

[Mary Austin-Keller]

I think David made a good point that I'd like to take a little  
further.  I see few IxD job ads for junior interaction designers.   
When you combine a lack of phenomenal IxD schools with few jobs for  
junior designers, you can't expect a plethora of fabulous experienced  
designers.

Maybe I'm just remembering the market for junior designers at the  
middle/end of the dot-com bust (when I was looking) and it's better  
now.  But a good way to find great mid to senior level talent is to  
create it by fostering junior designers.  These may not even be  
people with direct IxD education or experience, but just very smart  
people with HCI, CS, or very similar but-not-quite-IxD skills.

It's also a way to help keep your current experienced talent -  
imagine telling them that the junior designers are to do the heavy  
lifting on design documentation and simpler, more "pixel-pushing"  
type projects, while freeing them to focus on the bigger picture  
work?  :)

PS - Judi, the person who started this thread: check out graduates  
from DePaul University's HCI program.  They have both an undergrad  
and a Masters program.  I know it's "Usability" focused, but you can  
find some very talented junior people, usually with prior job  
experience in some field. (Having gotten my MS HCI there, I'm a  
little biased, though.)

Cheers,
~Mary




On Mar 12, 2007, at 1:54 PM, David Malouf wrote:

>
> What I see as the main problem is the education/career development  
> system.
>
> There are so few schools with direct good IxD programs. Some have
> minors like SCAD, others pay homage to it by saying it is encorporated
> in some other design program. Others are non-design programs like SIMS
> in Berkeley and UMich's LS program and many similar ones. Others are
> HCI programs that are great for teaching about research, but not a
> heck of a lot about design.