On Oct 21, 2008, at 12:35 AM, David Malouf wrote:
Hi Jack, And how many practitioners have taken Daniel Boyarski's course? How has that course been made manifest in the great part of practice? I think it is one thing to say that there is a theory put out there like Jonas' Pliability, but quite another to say that that same theory has reached the arena of practice and is well understood by that community of practice. I think as a community of practice we are far from understanding what Daniel Boyarski is teaching. It is not spoken about here on this list, nor is it spoken in the hallways at our conferences.
I suppose you are right. I realize that the practitioners with graduate degrees make up a minority. There are a number of CMU graduates involved in IxDA, and I would expect that other graduate programs have courses with similar content. So, why don't we have more discussions about these qualities of IxD? I suppose it is thought of as being less practical to the practitioner who is trying to get a product out the door and in need of quick and dirty usability testing methods or a solution for a particular type of form interaction. And I guess that's what you're getting at.
On the other hand, the influence of design for entertainment is becoming a popular topic, and involves many of the "softer" pieces of IxD.
As far as conferences go, for those of you that were selecting speakers for Interaction 09, what percentage of the submissions were more academic/theoretical/artistic, and how were they received in comparison to the more practical submissions? Looking back on it now, I recognize that I was trying to write a proposal that was solidly on the practical side, expecting that to be better received. Of course, these days, I'm very much down in the trenches myself, so that wasn't a difficult path to take. Was any effort taken to balance the practical and theoretical with the invited speakers?
And, how would a more balanced conference change the number and type of attendees? We have complained quite a bit about the overly academic bent of CHI.
We need WAY more programs in IxD (ooo! I'm about to do that) at the masters level that are teaching the types of theory and converting them to practice that you are mentioning. They also need to be brought into the "continuing ed" universe where at this point they are almost non-existent as we as a community of practice have been frightened away from theoretical in favor of the practical when it comes to these events. This means that these ideas get closeted to a select few, never getting aired out and applied in wider use.
Agreed (and I'm excited for you!). But I know there are a lot of intelligent people on this list that would enjoy discussing higher order topics. Perhaps we all need to make an effort to occasionally broach them.
Best, Jack Jack L. Moffett Interaction Designer inmedius 412.459.0310 x219 http://www.inmedius.com Charles Eames was asked the question, "What are the boundaries of design?" He answered, "What are the boundaries of problems?" - Charles Eames ________________________________________________________________ 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
