Blog
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MFA Interaction Design Fall Lecture Series: NPR.org
This fall, the MFA Interaction Design Department welcomes visiting lectures in an intimate twice-a-month series to inspire conversation, pursue change, and incite creation.
All Things Redesigned: Visualizing NPR
How do you translate a radio experience to the digital realm? This summer NPR launched a complete overhaul of its web presence, redesigning everything from its visual interface to its web content management system. Enhancements included a flexible presentation model and greater integration of multimedia and photographic storytelling. Employing user-centered design and Agile development methodologies, NPR’s cross-functional team was able to design a flexible yet manageable system that allows its editors to translate NPR’s distinctive voice to the digital realm.
Speakers
Callie Neylan, Sr Product Designer
Scott Stroud, Sr Analyst/Information Architect
Dave Wright, Sr Product DesignerRelated
Details
Wednesday, November 4
6-8PM
MFA Interaction Design Department
132 W 21st Street, 6 Floor
New York City
(View Map)About MFA Interaction Design
The MFA in Interaction Design program trains students to research, analyze, prototype, and design concepts in their business, social, and cultural contexts. It explores the strategic role of interaction design in shaping everyday life, and intends to increase the relevancy of design to business and to society so designers can make a difference.
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CreativeXpert Tonight: Jeffrey Zeldman and Ethan Marcotte
Join Ethan Marcotte and faculty member Jeffrey Zeldman on the premier of the CreativeXpert Live Show tonight at 8:00 PM/EDT. The authors of the recently released Designing With Web Standards, 3rd Edition will discuss the book and take questions via Skype and Twitter on this live podcast.
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Open House Redux
Over 100 gathered this past Saturday in New York City to participate in presentations and a reception for the second-annual Interaction Design Open House. Chair Liz Danzico, faculty members, and students shared their insight on curriculum, thesis projects, and the day-to-day life of a student in the program.
We’ve heard interest in another Open House. If you missed this one, or wish to hear more about the program, please let us know. While this is not an official RSVP, it is a way for us to gauge the level of interest, and better address your questions and concerns should we have one.
A warm thank you to everyone who came out to make this one of the largest Open Houses at SVA!
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David Womack: Can UX Save the Book?
Faculty member David Womack interviews information architect Louis Rosenfeld of Rosenfeld Media for his take on launching a new publishing house “in the midst of a collapsing publishing industry.” Below is an excerpt.
David Womack: How does Rosenfeld Media differ from a traditional publishing house?
Louis Rosenfeld: We’re focused on building a nimble, useful publishing infrastructure that sits in the sweet spot between two existing extremes: the almost industrial approach that traditional publishing houses use, and the do-it-yourself self-publishing approach that many authors ultimately find to be way more trouble than they’d expected. We’re trying to provide just enough infrastructure to help authors concentrate on their Big Ideas while not getting dragged down by “it’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking.
DW: What got you interested in the book business?
LR: In a past career, I was a librarian, so it shouldn’t be at all surprising. We reputedly like books.
But Rosenfeld Media isn’t just producing books on paper. Our digital publishing strategy - a moving target if there ever was - now calls for three digital formats. Each format - print included - has its time and place. You don’t have to apply expensive user research methods to learn that; just talking with our target audience on a regular basis does wonders to learn about contexts for using our books.
So we know that our customers rely on the paperback to read and orient themselves with the material initially, and they use digital copies for quick look-ups and other kinds of reference applications. The jury’s out regarding handheld devices, but we do see some demand for the EPUB format, an open standard supported by such devices as the iPhone, Sony Reader, and eventually, I’m guessing, the Kindle.
DW: Do you think other publisher’s should adopt UX practices?
LR: Really, if traditional publishers applied UX methods to their development and design processes, they’d produce much better books and save a lot of money. I can’t claim to have achieved some sort of publishing nirvana, but with some pocket change and a few chips to call in, I’ve been able to publish books that compare quite respectably with Rosenfeld Media’s competitors in terms of quality and, yes, sales.
It costs very little to learn something about which contexts your books will be used in, and what design features will benefit users most. It costs very little to involve industry experts in your decisions on which proposals to accept and how to improve upon them. It costs very little to engage your potential readers and others in a book’s development. And it costs next to nothing to sit down, talk with, and learn from your customers on a regular basis; in fact, I’m not sure how it wouldn’t be a requirement for a publisher. But I doubt that many publishers do it, which is a pity.
Maybe they should buy my books? After all, they’re all about user experience research.
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Lecture: Scott Berkun “Confessions of a Public Speaker”
Confessions of a Public Speaker
Wonder why some good ideas in the world get rejected? Why bad ones get accepted? It’s about communication and persuasion, and this talk, based on the upcoming O’Reilly book, Confessions of a Public Speaker, provides honest, provocative and funny lessons on how to present and convince groups of people without selling out your soul. Based on Berkun’s 15 years of experience pitching, he lectures and teaches groups of all sizes, including appearances on NPR, CNBC and MSNBC. Bring your toughest questions about public speaking, pitching and tough creative communication situations for the no-holds barred Q&A.
About the Speaker
From 1994-2003, Scott Berkun was a manager at Microsoft, where he worked on the UI for first five versions of Internet Explorer in the early days of web design. He left the company in 2003 with the goal of writing enough books to fill a shelf. Confessions of a Public Speaker is his third book, following his bestsellers The Myths of Innovation and Making Things Happen. Scott makes a living by writing and speaking. He taught a graduate course in creative thinking at the University of Washington, blogs for Harvard Business, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired magazine, Forbes, National Public Radio, and other well known media. You can see his entertaining lectures and provocative essays on his blog at http://www.scottberkun.com.
Related
Details
Tuesday, November 17
11-12PM
MFA Social Documentary Amphitheater
136 W 21st Street, Room 102
New York CityAbout MFA Interaction Design
The MFA in Interaction Design program trains students to research, analyze, prototype, and design concepts in their business, social, and cultural contexts. It explores the strategic role of interaction design in shaping everyday life, and intends to increase the relevancy of design to business and to society so designers can make a difference.
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Robert Fabricant: Live From PopTech
As part of the core faculty of the PopTech Social Innovation Fellows Program, faculty member Robert Fabricant shares his insight and experience at the PopTech Conference last week. Impressed while working with the young leaders of social innovation in for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, Fabricant focuses his lens on the study of behavior to push for social impact.
“So what am I doing here? I don’t know much about the power grid in Namibia or low-cost diagnostics in Saudi Arabia. It’s interesting to be in a position of expertise with a group that has gone down roads and achieved things I don’t think I could achieve myself. My focus, as always, will be on behavior. I continue to see social impact largely through that lens. So we will be doing a deep dive into how you create the right conditions to drive changes in behavior. I will work with the group to help them answer the following questions:
- How do you link a set of behaviors together to achieve the desired impact of your intervention?
- How do you design prototypes and other interventions to test your assumptions around behavior and the underlying motivations that will support behavior change?
- How do you look at the barriers to behavior change and use them to your advantage?”
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October Open House
You’re warmly invited to join faculty members, students, and staff for an afternoon of informal presentations, questions and answers, and open discussion. An afternoon reception will follow, when you can get to know some of the faculty and students, and prospective students can ask additional questions about applying. Spend the afternoon considering your plans for fall 2010, and meeting some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field.
MFA Interaction Design Open House
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009
2:00-4:00PMSchool of Visual Arts
133 W 21 Street (Updated location)
1st floor, Room 101
New York CityA reception will follow in the MFA Interaction Design Department across the street.
For more information, please contact the department at interactiondesign [at] sva.edu or 212.592.2703.
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National Design Awards Winners’ Panel
As a part of National Design Week, the 2009 National Design Award winners participate in a panel discussion about their inspiration and drive as designers and the state of contemporary design in America. Faculty member Steve Duenes will represent The New York Times Graphics Department, Winner for Communications Design.
Details
Tuesday, October 20
6:30–8:30PM
The Times Center
242 West 41st Street
New York, NY 10018 -
Designing With Web Standards 3rd Edition
Designing With Web Standards 3rd Edition by faculty member Jeffrey Zeldman and web designer/developer Ethan Marcotte is in bookstores across the U.S. today, with international stores to follow.
“Best-selling author, designer, and web standards godfather Jeffrey Zeldman has once again updated his classic, industry-shaking guidebook. Substantially revised in collaboration with Ethan Marcotte, this third edition to the foundational web standards text covers improvements and challenges in the changing environment of standards-based design.”
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Lubalin Now: An exhibition of expressive lettering and typography
Herb Lubalin (1918–1981) is best known for his wildly illustrative typography and his groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros, and Fact.
On view in this inaugural exhibition in the newly re-location Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography includes recent posters, publications, and motion graphics by faculty member Matt Owens and other internationally recognized graphic designers that spotlight an emerging trend toward expressive lettering and typography.
Original sketches, magazines, logotypes, and posters selected from the Lubalin Center Archive will illuminate Lubalin’s influence on contemporary graphic design.
Opening Reception
Thursday, November 5: 6-8PM
The Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square Gallery
This event is free and open to the public -
MFA Interaction Design Fall Lecture Series: Jason Fried
This fall, the MFA Interaction Design Department welcomes visiting lectures in an intimate twice-a-month series to inspire conversation, pursue change, and incite creation.
About the Speaker
Jason Fried, 37signals, co-founder and president.
Jason Fried is the co-founder and president of 37signals. Jason believes there’s real value and beauty in the basics. Jason co-wrote all of 37signals books, and is invited to speak around the world on entrepreneurship, design, management, and software.
Details
Wednesday, October 28
6-8PM
MFA Interaction Design Department
132 W 21st Street, 6 Floor
New York City
(View Map)About MFA Interaction Design
The MFA in Interaction Design program trains students to research, analyze, prototype, and design concepts in their business, social, and cultural contexts. It explores the strategic role of interaction design in shaping everyday life, and intends to increase the relevancy of design to business and to society so designers can make a difference.
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Twitter Reading Recommendations
Earlier this year, we presented reading recommendations suggested by our faculty. Today, we present a different kind of reading — a potential Twitter reading list. Below is only a small sample of those @svaixd has come to follow. With the growing number of Twitter users, we look forward to finding more to add to our list.
All Day Buffet: @alldaybuffet Energy toward changing the world through creativity and business.
Core77: @core77 Content for industrial designers and design enthusiasts alike.
Design Observer: @DesignObserver Writings on design and culture. Edited by Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand, and Julie Lasky.
frog design: @frogdesign Global innovation firm that helps create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences.
GOOD: @GOOD A collaboration of individuals, businesses, and NPOs pushing the world forward.
iA: @iA Tweets from and information architect, UX designer, and founder of iA Inc and Webtrendmap.com.
Kicker Studio: @kickerstudio Product design consultancy specializing in consumer electronics, appliances, touchscreens, kiosks, devices, objects with screens, and robots.
Pew Internet: @Pew_Internet The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.
Zappos: @zappos The voice behind Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh, CEO.
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One Hour Design Challenge: The Future of Digital Reading
Interaction Design students teamed up to participate in the One Hour Design Challenge: The Future of Digital Reading for Jason Santa Maria‘s Communicating Design Class. With two days left to go until entries close, the challenge sponsored by Core77 and Portigal Consulting asks designers “What will reading look in the future?” Several students’ designs are feature on Core77. The winner for the challenge will receive $600 donated in their name to 826 Valencia, an organization that helps kids with expository and creative writing in San Francisco.
The PaperBack by Stephanie Aaron, Kristin Grafe and Eric St. Onge.
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Khoi Vinh Interviews Armin Vit
Khoi Vinh, who will be teaching the course on “Designing the Conversation” beginning next week, interviews Armin Vit, co-author for the recently released book Graphic Design, Referenced. Their enlightening conversation weighs print against the emergence of interactive media, the role of the author as curator, and what this book adds to the survey of Graphic Design history and contemporary landscape. Below is an excerpt.
Khoi Vinh: This is an ambitious book—almost 400 pages and over 2,500 images surveying more or less all of graphic design. Why did you feel that you wanted or needed to tackle something of this scale?
Armin Vit: To be honest, we didn’t feel this was something we were dying to tackle. It was a case of blissful ignorance. Rockport Publishers approached us with the idea of an ambitious book but neither they nor we really grasped the extent the book could reach. The book started relatively simple, but the more we started to fill in the blanks of things we thought needed to be covered the more blanks we created that needed to be filled. It was only after two or three months of just focusing on the outline of the book that we realized how ambitious the book really was and how hard we were going to have to push ourselves to get it done. Luckily, we “only” had 400 pages to fill, otherwise we would still be working on it.
KV: Without getting into whether design for interactive media is as aesthetically accomplished as design for print media, I think it’s worth asking: is any contemporary history of graphic design really complete unless it documents how design is practiced online? After all, the Web and digital media of all kinds are profoundly changing the way people think about graphics, typography, layout, information delivery, communication—they’re changing the very meaning of the word design, even if the work doesn’t superficially measure up to the standards of the print design canon. Shouldn’t such a book as “Graphic Design, Referenced” account for that?
AV: Yes, definitely. It would have been a great opportunity. We just didn’t feel confident (or, more importantly, comfortable) in making any assertions about which Web work should enter the proverbial canon. Part of it was the overwhelming nature of the book so we had to pick our battles and at that moment, because of important and unanswered questions like whether interactive media is as aesthetically accomplished as print, we chose other battles. Perhaps in a second edition, where we have a thousand less things to gather, we can take a good look at this.
KV: Of all that knowledge now lodged in your brains, what’s the most unexpected, surprising or just plain fun bit that you learned while researching the book?
AV: That there is an arrow in the FedEx logo! Kidding. There wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, it was more a number of things that caught my attention: Tiffany & Co.’s blue is PMS 1837 which, if you know your PMS’s, is in the red range, so the number relates to the year it Tiffany was founded; legendary designers like Ladislav Sutnar and W.A. Dwiggins were into puppetry; Otl Aicher died in a car accident while crossing from one side of his property to the other; Campbell’s soups’ red and white color combo comes from an executive who liked the way Cornell’s football uniforms looked; Rick Valicenti worked at a steel mill, hard hat and all. There is not much use to this information. It won’t gain us clients and I won’t be cooler for it (maybe even dorkier than I already am) but the sense is that this information is empowering, it gives you insight into what makes great designers relevant and great designs memorable. If others can benefit from this knowledge in this way or another, we’ve done our job. All 400 pages worth.
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Week of walks: October 18-24
Photo credit: Alissa Walker The MFA Interaction Design Department is co-sponsoring a city walk by Alissa Walker, author of the new City Walks Architecture: New York. Join Alissa and a group of special guests for a tour of “Sustainable Skyscrapers: Times Square Goes Green” to learn about the reactive interiors and intelligent materials that make up the Bank of America Tower and six more of the city’s greenest buildings. During the walking tour, we’ll find out how this unlikely corner of the city is going green, from low-energy LEDs to pocket parks in closed streets. Then we’ll head to SVA’s Interaction Design HQ for eco-friendly refreshments.
Details
Monday, October 19
6PM: Meet outside the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park (corner of Sixth Avenue & 42nd Street)
8PM: Reception at SVA MFA in Interaction Design, 132 W 21 Street, 6th floorView the full schedule for a week of walks
All walks are free and require no advanced reservation, simply show up at the denoted time ready to walk (and look for Alissa, holding up a copy!). All tours include a complimentary serving of gelato or ice cream, plus all attendees will receive a coupon good for a discount on City Walks Architecture: New York. See you on the streets!
Sponsored by:
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An Event Apart Chicago 2009
An Event Apart, the “design conference for people who make websites,” will take place October 12-13 in Chicago this year. Founded by Eric Meyer and faculty member Jeffrey Zeldman, the “intensely educational two-day learning session brings together twelve of the leading minds in web design for non-stop inspiration and enlightenment.” Among the speakers this year will include Jeffrey Zeldman and fellow faculty member Jason Santa Maria.
- Visit the Official An Event Apart Website
- Visit Jeffrey Zeldman Presents the Daily Report
- Read a quickfire Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman from net tuts
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MFA Interaction Design Fall Lecture Series: Don Carli
This fall, the MFA Interaction Design Department welcomes visiting lectures in an intimate twice-a-month series to inspire conversation, pursue change, and incite creation.
Designing for Carbon Neutral Media & Sustainable Media Supply Chains
Key issues that this lecture will address:
What are the carbon footprints of different media types and how many billions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions are associated with them?
What are some of the prevailing myths & misconceptions about the environmental benefits & sins of digital & physical media?
What possible and preferable changes can be made in the design and production of communication media?
How can the principles of system thinking and tools for life cycle analysis be used to design carbon neutral media and to support sustainable media supply chains?
About the Speaker
Don Carli, The Institute for Sustainable Communication, Senior Fellow; Sustainable Advertising Partnership, Director.
Don is Senior Research Fellow with nonprofit Institute for Sustainable Communication (ISC) where he is director of The Sustainable Advertising Partnership and other programs addressing sustainable marketing, advertising, corporate social responsibility, enterprise communication, innovation and sustainable sourcing. He is also Executive Vice President of SustainCommWorld LLC., Sustainability Editor for Graphic Arts Monthly Magazine, Printing News and a contributing editor to Actual Grafisk Information magazine in Sweden. For over 20 years Don has been a management consultant and senior advisor to advertisers, publishers and Fortune 1000 brands including Adobe, Dupont, Hewlett Packard, Kodak, Sun Microsystems, Time Incorporated, Xerox and The Economist. Don is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Studies Program Affiliate Scholar and has been an invited lecturer at NYU, MIT, Clemson University, California Polytechnic University, Columbia University and The City University of New York, as well as a keynote speaker and numerous industry conferences. He is a member of the board of advisors of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, a member of The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), as well as member of the Institute for Supply Management and a 2007 recipient of the P3 Foundation “Luminaire Award” recognizing outstanding achievement and personal dedication by graphic communication industry innovators who are committed to educating themselves and others.
Details
Wednesday, October 7
6-8PM
MFA Interaction Design Department
132 W 21st Street, 6 Floor
New York City
(View Map)About MFA Interaction Design
The MFA in Interaction Design program trains students to research, analyze, prototype, and design concepts in their business, social, and cultural contexts. It explores the strategic role of interaction design in shaping everyday life, and intends to increase the relevancy of design to business and to society so designers can make a difference.
About
Not all updates belong in the curriculum, and the Interaction Blog is where we talk about news and events around interaction design far and wide.
Categories
Recently
- Breaking Ground at the Visible Futures Lab
- Value of Web Presence, or on No More Resumes
- Paul Ford on the Epiphanator On The Media
- Getting Together: Interaction 12, Day Two
- Form Language, Guinness, and One Big Family: Interaction 12, Day One
- Thinking Thesis: Erin Moore on Privacy & Information Sharing
- Verge Review: The Language of Geography
Read more in the Archives.
