Fall Lecture Series
MFA Interaction Design hosts open lectures twice monthly in the interest of pursuing ideas central to interaction design.
Each evening gives way to discussion with the lecturers and guests. Open to the public. Space is limited, and RSVP will be announced via the blog two weeks prior to each event. There is no cost to attend.
Fall 2009 schedule:
SEPTEMBER 9, 6-8PM Kim Goodwin
Cooper Design, VP Design & General Manager
Designing Our Professional Future
Interaction design is still a relatively young profession. Like many new ideas, it has evolved organically, powered largely by the need to humanize the ever-accelerating proliferation of technology. The decisions we are making today—the ideas educators emphasize, the skills for which managers hire, and the paths we each follow in our individual careers—will shape our profession for tomorrow. Should we not design that future as consciously as we design products and services every day? Kim Goodwin will discuss her take on how today’s choices will affect tomorrow’s designers.
About the Speaker
As General Manager, Kim ensures that the company is planning for the future and that current operations are on track. As VP Design, Kim has played a major role in developing the Goal-Directed methods and turning them into the Cooper U curriculum, and she continues to work with the leaders of each design discipline to evolve and improve Cooper’s practice.
Her design expertise and teaching skill have made her popular as a speaker at conferences around the world. Kim has led a wide range of design projects, from e-commerce sites to information appliances, IP telephony systems, and complex healthcare applications. Before joining Cooper, Kim was a creative director and an educator.
SEPTEMBER 16, 6-8PM Scott Thomas
Obama for America, Design Director; The Post Family
USAbility
SimpleScott the former design director at Obama for America will discuss how interaction design made a huge difference in the past election. All too often, discussions of analytics, click through rates, and search engine optimization cloud the important truth that online campaigns and communities are for human beings. Come discover how superior design, technological collaboration, and authentic messaging, can truly change the world.
About the Speaker
Scott Thomas is constantly seeking the simplest answer to complex problems. Scott began his design pursuits studying architecture before bouncing to graphic design and web development.
Prior to moving to Chicago, where he set his sights on user-experience design, Scott called London’s Shoreditch home. From products to websites, Scott works to simplify the experience of use.
In 2006, he and five other creative types began a design collective, lovingly known as The Post Family. The group is devoted to supporting “family” member’s design habits-from silkscreen to letterpress, from illustration to blogging-in an effort to “get back to the hand.”
In 2007, Scott’s career took a dramatic leap when he was invited to join the New Media team at Obama for America. The chance encounter led Scott to becoming the Design Director of the historic Obama Presidential campaign. He is currently writing a book that explains how an obscure senator rose to the highest office in the land and celebrity status with the aid of branding and design.
Scott plans to continue designing for social causes that might just someday change the world.
SEPTEMBER 23, 6-8PM Laura Forlano
Disruptive Organizing: Collaboration and Innovation in the Open Source City
How can we reformat our cities and public spaces – and the architectures and technologies within them – as sites of collaboration and innovation? The open source movement is known not only for the innovation of robust operating systems such as Linux and Internet browsers such as Firefox but also as an emergent form of organizing based on collaborative production. Disruptive Internet technologies such as e-mail, blogging, instant messaging, Skype and Twitter have enabled the widespread availability of cheap, instantaneous global communication. These same technologies have engendered emergent forms of organizing in physical spaces including MeetUp groups, BarCamps (unconferences) and coworking communities. This presentation will discuss disruptive forms of organizing based on a current collaborative project, Breakout! Escape from the Office, which is being presented by The Architectural League of New York as part of the Situated Technologies: Toward the Sentient City exhibition.
About the Speaker
Laura Forlano is Kauffman Fellow in Law at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. She received her Ph.D. in Communications from Columbia University in 2008. Her dissertation, “When Code Meets Place: Collaboration and Innovation at WiFi Hotspots,” explores the intersection between organizations, technology (in particular, mobile and wireless technology) and the role of place in communication, collaboration and innovation. Forlano is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Design and Management department at Parsons and the Graduate Programs in International Affairs and Media Studies at The New School where she teaches courses on Innovation, New Media and Global Affairs, Technology and the City, Technology Policy, Sustainable Design and Business Ethics. She serves as a board member of NYCwireless and the New York City Computer Human Interaction Association.
OCTOBER 7, 6-8PM Don Carli
The Institute for Sustainable Communication, Sr. Research Fellow
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 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..
OCTOBER 14, 6-8PM Dave Gray
XPLANE, Founder and Chairman
Knowledge Games: A Grammar for Creativity and Innovation
We’re moving from an industrial to a knowledge economy, where creativity and innovation will be the keys to value. New rules apply. Yet two hundred years of industrial habits are embedded in our workplaces, our schools and our systems of government. How must we change our work practices to thrive in the 21st Century? Dave Gray will share insights from his upcoming book on the work of creativity and innovation, due to be published in the first quarter of 2010.
About the Speaker
Dave Gray is the founder and chairman of XPLANE, an information design consultancy serving Fortune 100, NGO and government clients around the world. An artist, journalist and information designer, he is passionate about applied creativity. More information is available at http:/davegrayinfo.com.
OCTOBER 28, 6-8PM Jason Fried
37Signals, Founder
NOVEMBER 4, 6-8PM Kelsey Libner, Callie Neylan, Scott Stroud, Dave Wright
NPR.org, Sr Analyst/Information Architect, Sr Product Designer, Sr Analyst/Information Architect, Sr Product Designer
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.
NOVEMBER 17, 11-12AM Scott Berkun
Scott Berkun, Author
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.
NOVEMBER 18, 6-8PM Matt Mullenweg
Automattic, Founder
“Fireside Chat on Design, Entrepreneurship, and Open Source”
Matt Mullenweg blogs at ma.tt. He is best known as the founding developer of WordPress, the blogging software he guided from a handful of users to the most widely used open source blog tool. In late 2005 he left CNET to found Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Akismet.com, and Gravatar. In his spare time he enjoys taking photographs and playing jazz.
NOVEMBER 20, 12-1PM Steve Portigal
Portigal Consulting, Principal
Getting Generative: User Research Applied to Business Decisions
Too often the tools of user research are applied to closed-ended problems (“Should the button be on the right or the left?”), leaving tons of great insights on the cutting-room floor. By taking a more considered view of what research to do, when to do it, and what to do with what has been learned, we can uncover and address any number of business challenges: organizational structure, process, branding, positioning, design language, new product/service opportunities, and of course, features. Steve will lead an interactive discussion about using research for more than merely informing design decisions.
About the Speaker
Steve Portigal is the principal of Portigal Consulting, a bite-sized firm in the San Francisco Bay Area that helps organizations to discover and act on new insights about themselves and their customers. In addition to consulting with innovative businesses like Sony, Belkin, Nestle and Plantronics, he writes regularly for Interactions magazine, Core77 and the Portigal Consulting blog, All This ChittahChattah. Steve is an avid photographer who has a Museum of Foreign Grocery Products in his home.
NOVEMBER 20, 6-8PM Andy Budd
Clearleft, Founding Partner
Designing the User Experience Curve
These days people expect more from a website than a handy set of tools and a pretty interface — they want an experience. From the moment somebody enters your site they’ll be judging you on everything from the way the site looks to the tone of your error messages. And they won’t just be judging you against other sites. They will be judging you on every customer experience they have ever had, from the rude man at the train station to the lovely hotel clerk that checked them in while on holiday. So in order to compete, we need to up our game and look at experiences both on and off-line.
In this session Andy Budd will look at 5 key factors that go into designing the perfect customer experience. By taking examples from the world around us, Andy will discuss how we can turn utilitarian experiences into something wonderful.
About the Speaker
Andy Budd is one of the founding partners at User Experience Design Consultancy, Clearleft. As an interaction design and usability specialist, Andy is a regular speaker at international conferences like Web Directions, An Event Apart and SXSW. Andy curates dconstruct.org, one of the most popular design conferences in the UK. He’s also responsible for UX London, The UK’s first dedicated Usability, Information Architecture and User Experience Design event.
Andy has helped judge several international design awards and currently sits on the advisory board for .Net magazine. Andy is the driving force behind Silverbackapp, a low‐cost usability testing tool for the Mac. Andy also wrote the best selling book, CSS Mastery and occasionally blogs at andybudd.com.
Never happier than when he’s diving some remotePADI dive instructor and retired shark wrangler.
DECEMBER 2, 6-8PM Peter Merholz
Adaptive Path, President
Designing is Easy; Delivering it is Hard
When you graduate, you will undoubtedly have the skills to execute on good, and possibly even great, design. You will feel confident when hired by leading organizations. You will thrill at your savvy in crafting clever solutions. And you will be distraught when your designs never see the light of day.
When it comes to product and service development, designing is the easy part. Getting those designs out into the world is what takes real work. I’ll share some lessons I’ve learned for enabling your efforts to actually be used by real people.
About the Speaker
Peter Merholz is a founding partner and president of Adaptive Path, an experience strategy and design firm. He has worked with a wide variety of clients from large multi-national companies to smaller, avant-garde firms and start-ups. Past clients include Hallmark, Socialtext, Intuit, United Airlines, and The Vanguard Group. Peter is an internationally recognized thought leader on user experience. He co-authored Subject To Change: Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World, published by O’Reilly. Peter’s thought leadership is perhaps most dubiously demonstrated in his coining of the term “blog” in 1999 when it was a nascent genre.
DECEMBER 9, 6-8PM Rob Tannen
Bresslergroup, Director of Research
Ergonomics for Interaction Designers
The convergence of digital user interfaces with physical products (e.g., touch screens, gestural interfaces) puts interaction designers in a position where knowledge of ergonomics is valuable, if not essential, for creating effective solutions. This lecture is an introduction to anthropometric design and research methods, including: explanations of fundamental ergonomic design principles and myths, case studies at the intersection of product and user interface design, and actionable takeaways to apply immediately. The content is geared specifically to interaction designers, relating understood digital design principles and terminology to parallels in physical design.
About the Speaker
Rob Tannen is a usability designer‐researcher with expertise in both products and user interfaces. He is Director of Research at Bresslergroup, an award‐winning product design firm, where he consults on a range of consumer, medical and commercial projects. He has over 15 years experience working with organizations including Comcast, Microsoft, the New York Stock Exchange, Siemens, and the United States Air Force. He is a professional writer and speaker on topics ranging from simplicity in design to effective research methods. He is creator/editor of DESIGNING for humans, a reference site for user researchers. Rob earned a doctorate in human factors psychology from the University of Cincinnati.
FAQs
Who is the ideal candidate? Can I attend the program part-time? Find out your answers to frequently-asked questions about the program.
Dot Dot Dot Lectures
Join us for the Dot Dot Dot lecture series when it resumes in fall 2010 in the venerable DUMBO, Brooklyn at Galapagos Art Space. Scholarly topics and occasional flights of fancy exactly once per month on a single theme.
