» Interaction Design and the Skills That Are Needed

Before graduating from college I became increasingly interested in pursuing my education in design further than an undergraduate degree. After talking with numerous faculty members I decided that it was best for me to spend a couple of years in the field doing some actual work before obtaining a masters degree. That was at least until I read about the new Masters of Fine Arts in Interaction Design that is going to be offered at the legendary SVA starting in the Fall of 2009. This program looks to have all the things I have been searching for in a masters program, great faculty (Christopher Fahey, David Womack, Jason Santa Maria, Karen McGrane, Khoi Vinh, Paul Ford, Matt Owens, Rachel Abrams, Jeffrey Zeldman), a prestigious school, and some sort of coverage on interactive media. In theory this new program would actually surpass all of my criteria.

Interaction Design and Understanding

This post however focuses on a question asked by Liz Danzico on her blog Bobulate, “What are the critical skills needed to foster a landmark understanding of interaction design?” This question intrigues me for two reasons. First, this question is surely deeply rooted in the foundation of the program and the answer will most likely shape the curriculum. Secondly, as a professional working in interaction design I often find myself asking the same question. In my case, I am focused on how this applies towards clients and how to get them up to speed during a project. After thinking about this for some time, I have come up with the following items:

Information architecture, usability, and accessibility
An understanding of mediums and their limitations
Community development and interaction
Design theory as applied to web technology
Design that effectively encourages user action

What would you add?

The above list is essentially the core items I believe are necessary to understand interaction design. I thought about a number of other items such as standards compliance or search engine optimization however I have determined that they are more technical in nature and in my opinion are not critical to an understanding.

What is your opinion, what would you add to the list? If you disagree, what would you say is needed to gain a landmark understanding of interaction design?

06/18

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8 Responses to “Interaction Design and the Skills That Are Needed”

Gino
June 19th, 2008 at 4:08 am

I am cautiously optimistic about the SVA program, because there really is no one program that brings all the pieces together, and they all tend to lack rigor in one way or another.

On my blog, I wrote about what I would look for if I was to hire a UXA or an IxD:

http://www.everythingisdesign.com/2008/05/04/what-is-a-user-experience-professional/
Zinni
June 19th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Gino,

I read your article and I have to agree with a large portion of the things listed. I personally have studied everything on your list in college due to the broad requirements mandated by my school. however I do no agree that social science methodologies are completely necessary. They may be a bonus, however I think you could be successful at interaction design without it. The same could be said about library and info sciences.

The elements you have listed all play a role however I think that a basic understanding of some of these things could be achieved by formulating a course specifically towards them, maybe as an Interaction Design 101 course. You could easily exhaust all of the subjects that I would consider complimentary however I believe that the return is minimal enough after a basic understanding.

I will agree that anyone hoping to study interaction design should spend some time actually building the end product. This is really the only way that you will be able to predict and avoid technological limitations through design.

Thanks for the comment, and for linking to your article I enjoyed them both!
J. Jeffryes
June 20th, 2008 at 9:56 am

1. Robust psychology training. Most of design is just applied psychology, but somehow most design programs forget that. When dealing with UX, understanding the hows and whys of human decision making, perception, and emotion are even more vital than they are in static design.

2. Basics of programming. UX designers don’t need to be programmers, but a foundation in basic programming concepts can be vital to their work. Just as a print designer needs to understand ink and paper, a UX designer must understand the technology they are designing for.
anonymous
June 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

I completely agree with J, and would like to add that while interaction designers may not be writing a great deal of code themselves, they are sure to be working closely with developers, so an understanding of programming is imperative in order to to facilitate proper communication, and subsequently, successful co-operation.
Jose
June 24th, 2008 at 9:56 am

All great comments. One additional thing to add is an eye for aesthetics and at least a basic understanding of color and graphic design. While some people just wireframe the interaction, more and more companies want the UX designer to either guide the graphic designer or do the graphics themselves. Using color and design elements are an additional way to create a better experience.

I’ve been doing this for so long that upon first thinking of it, UX seems like second nature. However when you dissect all of the elements that make a great UX/UI designer it’s an incredibly complex field that touches practically every other field in web/app design and creation.
Diah
June 24th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Nice artcle bro, tq
Gino
June 25th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Thanks. As a professional working in this field the last 12 years, and it’s already been said here more than once, of course, but — you can disagree all you want about the necessity of social science training — I cannot emphasize enough the importance of it as the foundation of almost all user centered design, without which one is just a glorified graphic designer. In fact as someone who has hired UX people I expect that someone come in as a social scientist rather than someone who is first a “designer” or a “developer”. Good luck in your journey.