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Keeping Tabs on “The Tablet”
Photo credit: Gene Lu. Dot Dot Dot Lecture Series take place at the Galapagos Art Space.
With iPad’s first day pre-sales figuring at 120,000, it may not be surprising that last week’s Dot Dot Dot “The Tablet” was our most successful event yet. If you missed the talks by our wonderful panel of experts, stay tuned to the blog for a video recording of the event soon. Meanwhile, speakers Matt Jacobs and Alexis Lloyd have summarized key points from their talks, and if that weren’t enough to relive the night, they’ve also made their slides available.
Thanks to those who came, nerded out, and maybe even left with a book on user experience design from our gracious sponsor Rosenfeld Media. We hope to see you next month for “The Entrepreneurs.”
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Interaction10 New York Redux
For those who missed Interaction10, including Chair Liz Danzico’s talk on improvisation and design, and faculty member Chris Fahey’s presentation on the human interface, the department will be hosting IxDA NYC’s Interaction10 Redux this Saturday. The event is sold out, but you can try the waitlist in case space opens up.
All IxD10 videos and slides can be found here.
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Student Apps Project Featured in GOOD Magazine
In her latest design column for GOOD Magazine, Alissa Walker shares the goods on an apps project students created for the Interaction Design Fundamentals class last semester. Initially inspired by the NYC BigApps competition, students developed different concepts using at least one source of data from the NYC.gov Data Mine.
Read the column for student concepts and insight from faculty Chris Fahey for the NYC BigApps project. Find out more about this assignment in our new projects page created by Katie Koch.
Clint Beharry created NY Loves U based on Richard Layard‘s Big Seven factors of happiness.
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Nicholas Felton Designs Department Business Cards
Data visualizer and summer faculty Nicholas Felton recently designed department business cards for students and staff. Like his infamous Feltron Annual Reports where order, through maps and graphs, emerges from the disorder of daily life, Felton’s play and assembly on the department identity by The Heads of State reaffirms a sense of unity through the chaotic.
The business cards have already been with students to Interaction10, and will be sure to make more cameos at conferences, events, and presentations to propel students forward. We want to extend our gratitude to the designer, and will be honored if we could end up as “just another statistic” in his next Annual Report for “kind deeds performed.”
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Liz Danzico Interviews Scott Berkun
In the latest issue of A List Apart, Chair Liz Danzico interviews Scott Berkun, author and fall semester guest lecturer of Confessions of a Public Speaker, on the fear of public speaking, and how to overcome it. Below is an excerpt:
Liz Danzico: Public speaking is thought of as one of the worst human fears, right up there with sickness, death, and fear of heights. What’s to be scared of?
Scott Berkun: The bar is very low for public speaking. It’s a tragedy here in 2010 that people still regularly fight to stay awake in meetings and conferences all over the world. Technology has not saved us from boring people. Or, perhaps more accurately, from interesting people who become boring when standing in front of a group.Part of the problem is people worry about the wrong things. They fear they’ll be laughed at or they’ll say something embarrassing, but as I explain in the book those things rarely happen. The most common mistake is not preparing wisely. Most speakers bore their audiences to death by rambling and stumbling through their lazy thinking, problems easy to avoid if you frame the challenges correctly, which was the goal of the book. It’s not that hard to speak well if you think about the challenges in the right way.
Liz Danzico: When you watch other people give talks, what’s your biggest pet peeve about others’ public speaking baggage?
Scott Berkun: I’m extremely sensitive to having my time wasted. If I feel I’d be better served reading their blog, or their book, I’ll get up and leave. If I feel the speaker hasn’t thought hard about their topic, and hasn’t practiced their material at least once, I will get up and leave. People who “ummm” every sentence, use jargon (or invent their own), cowardly hide behind complexity, talk about themselves and their accomplishments endlessly, or who seem to have no idea why the audience is there, also piss me off. Anyone who earnestly shows they care and has clearly put the effort in to be useful keeps my ass in my seat. The surprise is nearly everyone can do this, but few do. Again, the bar is really quite low. -
Live Layer Tennis: Vinh vs. Felton
Fall faculty Khoi Vinh, Design Director of NYTimes.com, will play against summer faculty Nicholas Felton of the Feltron Annual Reports in tomorrow’s Coudal Partners’ Layer Tennis match. Additional commentary will be provided by Adobe blogger John Nack.
Tune in to this live design exhibition tomorrow at 3PM/EST for 10 volleys worth of frenetic visuals made using video, animation, sound, photos, type and lots more.
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Student Project: Interaction Design Education
Sparked by a keynote speech by Kim Goodwin at Interaction 09 last year, students Derek Chan, Carmen Dukes, and Katie Koch recently embarked on a self-initiated project to bring a design education program to New York City schools starting in fall 2010.
In their latest stage of research and exploration, the team met with Katherine Schulten, editor of the Times Learning Network for some advice. Katherine recommended the team to begin their study in a K-12 classroom, and start by observing the teachers and how they engage students. She shared her own “secrets” of engagement including “hands-on” activities, as well as finding ways to make classroom materials relevant for students to connect on an emotional level.
To follow this project from development to implementation, visit the Interaction Design Education project blog. Find out more about the inspiration behind the initiative, and why it’s important for the design industry at Derek Chan’s blog.
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New SVA Summer Intensive Program: Impact! Design for Social Change
The new SVA program Impact! Design for Social Change launches with the help of Interaction Design student Colleen Miller, who designed its website. Co-founded by Steven Heller, Co-chair of MFA Design as Author and Mark Randall of Worldstudio, the program is a six-week summer intensive that will “introduce participants to a growing field of design for social advocacy.”
Impact! invites professionals, educators and students in the disciplines of graphic design, product design, information design, interactive design, fashion design, photography, and illustration to participate. Applications are being accepted now until April 31.
For more information, visit the Impact! website.
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Student Redux: Interaction 10
Through rain in Georgia and snow storm in Virginia (on the drive back), students have returned from three inspirational days of Interaction 10 to synthesize what they have learned from the industry’s best and brightest. Here’s what they remembered most about the conference and the city of Savannah:
What was your favorite session at the conference?
My favorite session was Ben Fullerton’s talk on Designing for Solitude. At the session Marc Rettig asked “We’re blazing into overconnectedness that was created by us. How do we protect the people who we affect with our design decisions? - Gene Lu
I loved Greg Vassalo’s talk, 10 Things I Learned About Being a Design Consultant While Living in the Hospital For a Year. The relationship he created between our family lives and our work drove home the value of empathy in interaction design. - Katie Koch
Jon Kolko enthusiastically and clearly explaining the pillars of IxD as they relate to social change, which brought together many of the concepts we have learned at SVA so far. - Colleen Miller
My favorite session was Richard Banks with his talk about how memories will be passed down through the generations and how that media will change over the course of time. - Evinn Quinn
Co-chairs of the conference Bill DeRouchey and Jennifer Bove introduce Interaction 10.
What was the most interesting idea you learned about at the conference?
Consumerism isn’t dead, but it needs to be so we can move on to a path that is innovative, sustainable, and profitable. (Nathan Shedroff) - Stephanie Aaron
That we should be designing our products to reflect human behavior, not mimic it. (Chris Fahey) - Derek Chan
Design something meaningful. - Angela Huang
Interaction design manifests itself in ways beyond websites. - John Finley
Thinking about designing objects not to be quickly turned over, or even just sustainably replaced, but to attempt to design for longevity — to make electronics that get better with time, not just more out-of-date. - Jeff Kirsch
Your work will change culture, so do work that is meaningful” (Jon Kolko) - Beatriz Vizcaino
What was the best thing you did in Savannah?
Arriving exhausted after 14 hours of driving and then heading to a ghost tour pub crawl with a hilarious tour guide was the best welcome to Savannah I could have hoped for. - Clint Beharry
Meeting a lot of amazing people who I plan on begging internships from in the near future. - Russ Maschmeyer
I had an amazing meal at Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. I think I’ve finally had authentic southern food! - Eric St. Onge
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Interaction 10: Day Three
From mobile apps to the responsive city, Eric St. Onge recaps the final day with Day Three’s highlights.
The historic Trustees Theater at SCAD
I started on the third and final day of Interaction 10 with a presentation from Jeff Blaise, who talked about designing interfaces for mobile devices. He was able to use some of his experiences as a designer at Sapient to give some helpful advice on the process of designing and developing mobile apps.
After that, I went to see Peter Morville discuss the Future of Search. Peter recently published a new book called Search Patterns, and he used examples from his book to demonstrate some of the behavioral and design patterns that have appeared in user interfaces for searching. He also talked about how he thinks that we’re going to see more multisensory forms of searching in the future, including better visualizations for search, audio search, and image (and video) searching. He ended his talk by describing his idea that search should to act as a microscope, a telescope, and a kaleidoscope.
Next, I went to see Rob Nero demonstrate his TRKBRD project. In the process of developing an idea for his thesis project at Malmo University, he used Arduino to develop a trackpad that sits on top of his laptop’s keyboard: a “trackboard.” The project was a good reminder of the Physical Computing course I took last semester, but it was also fascinating to see the social effects of what can happen when you publish your work in progress. I look forward to seeing his thesis work on stacked input devices.
After a lunch break, I went to see Gretchen Anderson of Lunar talk about the importance of facial features when designing products. She demonstrated how the first things you notice about an object can strongly communicate what you think the potential of that object can be. You can design these “facial features” into products to create a good first (and continuing) impression.
Finally, the last keynote speaker of the conference was Dan Hill. Dan writes the blog City of Sound and works as a designer at Arup in Sydney, Australia. He spent much of his talk sharing some of the “civic-scale” visualizations he’s designed, which hope to move some of the private data about infrastructure and city usage out into the public. He showed many examples, including graphics showing water usage, wi-fi in libraries, public transit systems, and responsive architecture, among many others. I found the talk very inspiring for thinking about ways to make invisible data visible, and ways to improve the design for public spaces.
And that was the end of the conference. After three days of big ideas, fried chicken, and sweet tea, I was on my way back to New York, and on my way back to homework. After the amazing experience this year, I definitely hope to attend Interaction 11 next year in Boulder, Colorado.
Thanks to the students for covering the conference! We’ll see you again in Boulder.
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Interaction 10: Day Two
Sunshine, student competitions, sparks from Tom Igoe, and a stunning finish from Paola Antonelli, Evinn Quinn recaps Day Two’s highlights.
Today kicked off interaction 10 Day Two. There were even more things to do, and the weather cleared up. Today we started off with the opening keynote by Enzio Manzini, and then swiftly moved to Shelly Evenson. I was interested in the talk that she gave. I was preempted, by my cybernetics teacher Paul Pangaro, to observe her talk. She spoke about systems and the conversation, which is a very interesting and relevant concept that is involved with our studies.
Tom Igoe again sparked thoughts of interaction design through the use of physical computing. Speaking on intellectual property and how product manufacturing is a combination of multiple lines of intellectual property and how it is becoming dispensable. He views this as a problem, suggesting that because things are privatized and copyrighted, there is more development and waste of things that accomplish similar goals. He views this as a primary reason that the landfills are progressively getting bigger.
I was also very interested in the student competition. The students were to apply with a concept that was to be judge upon entry. The second phase of competition was to attend a design charette, which is a design competition, focused on a specific topic. The topic for this challenge was social networking. The students had 8 hours to come up with a concept. Social networking can mean many things.
In the context of these projects it could be as physical as a concert or as literal as this conference were attending. The content was great and the presentations were awesome. Followed by the presentations was the final speaker for the evening Paola Antonelli, curator for the Museum of Modern Art, in our very own New York City spoke about design and interactive art can communicate with us in various ways and the roles that designers play in that space. It was a good talk to end the evening. Now, on to the Microsoft-sponsored event!
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The Awl: A Conversation with Paul Ford
In a recent interview with The Awl, associate editor of Harper’s Magazine Paul Ford talks about why he thinks paywalls are necessary, what he envisions for the Harper’s website, and what he would do with ten million dollars.
An ad promoting online subscriptions from the Harper’s Magazine website.
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The Study of Systems: A Conversation with Paul Pangaro
SVA: You’re teaching a course titled “Introduction to Cybernetics and the Foundations of Systems Design.” Would you describe cybernetics and its application to design?
Paul Pangaro: The word “cybernetics” is a useful place to start. It comes from a Greek root that has to do with steering. In order to steer, you have to see where you’re going; see whether that’s towards the goal or off-course from the goal; then change your actions to head back toward the goal. I act. I see the consequences. I say, “No, not quite what I meant.” And so I correct by acting again. That’s the cybernetic loop.
Now, notice I’ve just described the design process. I’ve just described what happens when we say, “Let’s build this.” We make a prototype and it doesn’t quite work. So we adjust it, get users in front of it, and change our mind, try something else, and so on.
The user’s process is also like that. The user picks up a device and thinks, “I want to buy a book on Amazon,” then realizes that’s not quite where she wants to be, goes to another site, and finds that’s not even the book she wanted. But this new goal is better than the old goal. So humans are also engaged in a cybernetic loop for getting what they want.
Fundamental models of cybernetics have great applicability both to the process of design and to an understanding of what we’re designing for—human interaction.
So cybernetics offers a set of models that starts from general concepts of action and goal and feedback, and helps us solve the complex problems of design today. Cybernetics applies to complex technologies, to organizational structures, and even to conversation itself—which, as we all experience every day, is a basic human way of setting goals and acting to achieve them.
From L’Ère Atomique, Cybernétique, Electronique, Automation. 1958. Éditions René Kister, Genève.
SVA: What is its value to design?
PP: Design often focuses on the particular medium or constraint of interaction: is it a chair? Is it a smartphone? That usually creates a narrow frame. And the design process moves from that focus on the particulars in a straight line to a particular solution.
But complexity of today’s design problems comes from the chain of design, the chain of systems, the chain of interactions that are much more than a single individual can manage. For example, we might be designing a piece of software that has to be coded, that runs in a device that has to be manufactured, that connects to a service via the internet “cloud” that affords a whole universe of possibilities. While I use my smartphone, I’m engaging “systems of systems” without having to think about them. And there is no “straight line of design” from the concept of a computer I hold in my hand to a particular solution. Any solution requires teams upon teams to create.
Cybernetics demonstrates its value to design by modeling this complexity in the abstract as a mesh of collaborations, conversations, and goals, which harness the systems of systems to operate. The models of cybernetics both help tame this complexity and keep the focus on steering to achieve human goals, in service of human needs.
From L’Ère Atomique, Cybernétique, Electronique, Automation. 1958. Éditions René Kister, Genève.
SVA: Where do students apply systems thinking both in your course and beyond?
PP: My experience teaching these concepts is that it takes over the way students tend to think about a problem. It becomes part of how they look at the world.
I also see it as a diagnostic tool. It offers the perspective that, “I can make this better if I thought about it in the cybernetic frame.” Students learn along the way, for example, how to focus sharply on the limitations of a system’s capabilities—what it cannot do—in order to better define what they want it to do.
Designing the conversation is something they can bring every day to every meeting. “Mondays at 10AM we all get together in the same room to discuss a project.” Looking at it cybernetically, these conversations can’t achieve the goals set for them. Can we design the next conversation so that the knowledge to move to the next step is in the room when we meet? That’s just one example we all experience. Understanding teams and conversations as a system is a way of designing around the horrible meeting culture that so many companies have.
So, cybernetics is a set of tools that apply to our every day work process as well to the design of better interactions.
My goal is that these models get carried forward, not so they get drilled into somebody’s head and are applied slavishly, but so they become a way designers naturally see the world—and not just see the world, but diagnose it to understand how we can make it better.
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Physical Computing Final Projects
Final projects for Fundamentals of Physical Computing are up. Students have documented projects and labs through their blogs and video work. See the result of many whiteboard doodles, post-it notes wireframes, and brainstorm sessions.
What a wall looks like in the studio on a typical day.
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Video: Jared Spool “What Makes Design Intuitive?”
Using examples of web sites, applications, devices, and more, guest lecturer Jared Spool tackles factors that contribute to counter-intuitive design, and narrows down when design is intuitive:
It’s basically, they (the user) will just know what to do. They can walk up to it and know what to do right away, and they don’t feel they would need any training, whether explicit or implicit. It’s obvious.
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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.
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Recently
- Keeping Tabs on “The Tablet”
- Liz Danzico on Jazz, Improv, and Lessons Therein
- Interaction10 New York Redux
- Student Apps Project Featured in GOOD Magazine
- Nicholas Felton Designs Department Business Cards
- Liz Danzico Interviews Scott Berkun
- Live Layer Tennis: Vinh vs. Felton
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