Opening keynote to Interaction South America 2010 in Curitiba, Brazil on 12/2/2010

1. Education For Design For Life
Dave Malouf
Professor, Industrial Design & Interaction Design
Savannah College of Art & Design
@daveixd
1

2. Let’s learn about you
Quem é você?
2

3. About me
Father
3

4. Traveler, observer, student
4

5. Teacher
5

6. Community Builder
6

7. But how did
I get here?
Did I just use my
iPhone as a
navigator?
(yes & no)
7

8. My Journey
Do as I say,
not as I do

9. Look Mom,
I’m a
Designer!
In 1994
coder = designer
9

10. This ain’t right!
Come to 1999 - 2003
10

11. Capoeira
Eu so Angoleiro
11

12. Tog asks for
respect!
IxDA is born and I
found my tribe.

13. Industrial Design
Oh! so this is what design looks like
13

14. Playing catchup
AND finding my own path
14

15. Again ...
Don’t do as I do; do as I say ...
15

16. So now what?
• What is the state of design?
• What do you have to do?
16

17. Caveat
I am an American!
17

18. Jump to the chase
Everything has converged
18

19. It’s all here:
Architecture
Industrial Design
Interior design
Service Design
Graphic Design
Interaction Design
19

20. DaVinci is not real
No 1 person could do this
20

21. It has been around awhile
21

22. This guy is kickin’ our asses
22

23. Wicked Problems
23

24. Social Networks
24

25. Distracted
25

26. Our focus is much simpler
Just want to do my web site
26

27. Types of IxDs
Each has its own needs and some are stages
towards others.
Web/Software Designers
Hardware Designers
System Designers
Wicked Problem Solvers
27

28. All are people centric
28

29. Know Brain
Perception &
Cognition
29

30. Know culture
Anthropology
30

31. Ethnography
Observe AND
Participate
31

32. Most of us are stuck here ...
32

33. We need to be talking
33

34. Out here!
Observe, talk, interpret
34

35. Without thinking about this
Data good, rigidness bad
35

36. All require creativity
36

37. Lots of ideas
Interaction Designer’s weakness is in their lack of
creative stamina
37

38. Where is our craft?
It is NOT the wireframe
38

39. Envision the future
39

40. Prototype
Code
Produce
Build
40

41. Play
Try it & Let others try
it too.
41

42. Tell Stories
Envision Embodied Situations within Narratives
42

43. Sell! Sell!
Sell!
No one is just going
to like your ideas, or
believe you at face
value.
43

44. Visual communication
You CAN’T live without it!
44

45. So regardless of IxD type ...
gotta know about people: individuals & groups
gotta observe people: not just because you have to
gotta be creative: sketch; volume is everything
gotta envision the future: prototype & play
gotta tell stories: narratives sell ideas & offer designs
gotta be visual: visual communication wins
45

46. How do you learn all this?
46

47. Beats me!
47

48. It’s a
marathon
Everyone starts from
a different place and
takes a different path.
48

49. The young get to start fresh
And like most youth start out sprinting
49

50. Bill Moggridge
On Design Teaching & Learing
50

51. All creative exercise starts
with these 3 things ...
Criticism: Knowing what is right/wrong & why
Craft: Ability to manifest yours or someone else ideas
Creativity: Ability to conceive new ideas
51

52. Early Design Education
Creativity: Think up stuff Criticism: Judge stuff
Sketch Art History
Visual Thinking Design History
Craft: Make Stuff Context
Production Knowledge
Aesthetics Observation
Foundation (Has its own craft)
Not usually found in IxD programs Found in IxD, but not most other
Design programs
52

53. Interaction Design
53

54. Besides general design ...
Information Activity
Structure Flow
Relationships Process
Content Procedure
People Language
Perception/Cognition rhetorics
Ergonomics poetics
Behavioral Economics semiotics
Socio-cultural
54

55. What is interaction design?
Interactivity?
Technology management?
Dialog aesthetics?
Web? (the network)?
55

56. Try this ...
Interaction Design is the attempt to use abductive
processes towards elegant & beautiful solutions for
helping people mitigate the increased critical
mass of complexity caused by technology.
The designer does this by imagining new futures
inspired by insights gained through intentionally
experiencing, describing, and analyzing specific
contexts.
56

57. NOPE! That’s just design
Just change “technology” for “culture”.
57

58. Was that always “design”?
58
I have come to believe that IxD is more a school of design than itʼs own discipline. That in the practice of every other major design discipline what we have learned through the creation of
interaction design can be applied.
This is not to say that IxD is everything but that IxD is everywhere. It is a tool to be wielded by every designer regardless of medium or connection to technology.
and yet … It really isnʼt that simple.

59. Bill Verplank
59

60. Verplank translated
Form to communicate what is possible
Form to communicate what has happening/ed
Form to communicate state & flow
60

61. It has to be also
Designing what IS possible
Creating understanding
Designing flow
61

62. AND
Knowing WHY!
62

63. What was that thing
about foundation?
63

64. Usual designer skills
Drawing
Composition
2D
3D
Basic theory
Construction
64

65. The theoretical & critical
material of the medium
Exploring media Exploring properties
GUI Time
Tangible Metaphor
Embedded Abstraction
Spatial Motion
Rhetorics
Semiotics
65

66. Pratt
Foundation
Combines these
issues
Core to criticism
66

67. You need more...
Top 6 non-traditional IxD skills every interaction
designer needs:
67

68. Idea Visualization
rapid idea communication
68

69. Information Visualization
69

70. Computer
Programming
virtual prototyping
needs to be more than
“click-through”
70

71. Model Making
sketch models of the physical
71

72. Physical Computing
Building tangible interactions
72

73. Video/Film
Embodied experiences
Imagined futures
73

74. In 4 years?!?
US standard length of
bachelor’s degree
(undergraduate).
74

75. As noted above, it’s a long race.
Long after school.
Hopefully you’ll have people applauding, too.
75

76. Practice
Brazilian Carnegie Hall?
76

77. Exploration of multiple media
77

78. Evaluating case studies
78

79. Reading existing theory
Testing it out
79

80. The right
environment
People to work with
People to teach
People to learn from
80

81. Get Mentors
It is a lot of work to
use a mentor
81

82. Have
Heroes
Be inspired!
82

83. Draw a map
83

84. Be
Passionate!
84

85. Pet project(s)
Don’t let them stall!
85
Andrei Herasimchuk - Build your blog

86. Speak your
mind
Present
Write
Teach
Engage
86

87. It is really up to you ...
87

88. Thank you
http://davemalouf.com/
@daveixd
88