I agree entirely Jim. I know interaction designers that specialize in brochures.
The definition of this group, as a desciption of self is getting a bit tiresome. Mark On Tuesday, January 29, 2008, at 12:02PM, "Jim Leftwich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >The phrase "interface design up to this point" and calls to limit >the definition of Interaction Design and the scope of IxDA invites an >examination of the term's history. > >The definition of Interaction Design isn't, (and more importantly) >won't *ever* be, limited to just the "digital" domain because it >never was and isn't inherently limited in that manner as a practice >in reality. The term "Interaction Design" itself, which was coined >by Bill Moggeridge and Bill Verplank at IDTwo (one of the three >companies that combined to become IDEO) in the mid-to-late 1980s, >represented the design of interaction across a variety of >technologies and product and system design boundaries. Interaction >Design certainly involves design of any and all patterns of usage. > >Interaction Design was a term I was able to easily adopt around 1987, >for something I'd been practicing in the design consulting field >since 1983 on products, software, systems, and combinations thereof. > >The first interaction designs I did involved designing and modeling >the interaction of users with physical components in devices and >equipment that had multi-step processes. As more and more equipment >began to include digital components and digital control and >information, that also became part of what was involved in the >interaction design. Fairly recently, an interaction design project >of mine (as a component of designing medical equipment that I also >did the industrial design, physical controls design, and information >architecture for), involved analyzing, modeling, and designing >physical components involved in the device's physical interaction >that were not associate with the product's digital features and >functions. To separate various aspects of the device's interaction >into technological domains (presumably to be handled by separate >designers, or one designers who's very conscious to take off a hat >with one label and put on another hat with another label) is, in my >opinion, somewhat absurd and completely overlimiting to our field as >a whole. > >I'm happy to see Victor Papanek's name come up in this thread, as >he was the head of my alma mater, KCAI's School Of Design, and left >an indelible mark of wholistic approach to Design at our department. >There's probably not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for >having had the great fortune to study a wide scope of Design (from >typography and corporate identity to computers and software to >industrial design and manufacturing technologies) and thus having >been equipped to enter my career without the limiting boundaries and >categories that have preoccupied so many in the field, and kept many >more from pursuing the opportunity to design a greater range of the >interactive aspects of products, systems, and environments. > >I realize that many of the members of IxDA are web designers, and >live and breathe entirely within the virtual realm or within the >bounds of software running on devices. This is understandable. > >But it's altogether another thing, and a highly regrettable thing at >that, when the specialists begin to demand that the field of >Interaction Design, or IxDA be similarly limited in scope. > >Limiting Interaction Design, or IxDA, to just the digital stems from >a myopia of the non-generalists, who make up the wide part of the >field's Bell Curve (due to the huge number involved exclusively in >the web and software). And furthermore, I think this myopic >insistence on categorization, limitation, and specialization has led >to many products and systems being very poorly designed, >interaction-wise. Think the vast majority of mobile phones and >devices and equipment. Specialization and insistence on limited >scope for something as *necessarily* all-encompassing as Interaction >Design is the first step towards a dangerous "dilution of >responsibility" among specialists. At best, this leads to inelegant >bolted-together separate design efforts. At worst it leads to more of >the type of poorly designed products and systems the world is already >plagued by. > >I'm not that worried about Interaction Design, or IxDA, being >limited in definition or scope however. There are a number of >generalists that have been around for a long time that will continue >to point out the value of embracing a more encompassing view of >Interaction Design as IxDA moves forward and grows. As for the >specialists and those practicing within specific domains - perhaps >they would benefit by forming specialist sub-groups *within the >larger and inclusive organization*. But it will prove impossible and >impractical to artificially limit the profession that's been being >practiced for decades, nor the organization that's beginning to >represent us all. > >Jim > >James Leftwich, IDSA >CXO - Chief Experience Officer >SeeqPod, Inc. >Emeryville, California >http://www.seeqpod.com > >Orbit Interaction >Palo Alto, California >http://www.orbitnet.com > > >. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . >Posted from the new ixda.org >http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=25077 > > >________________________________________________________________ >*Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* >February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA >Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > >________________________________________________________________ >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 > > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ 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
