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Peter · Dec 22, 2006, 07:23 PM

Does anyone do this professionally/have an interest in it?
I'm currently doing a degree in CompSci, and Interaction is something that really interests me - curious what people recommend for a career in Interaction Design (Science Degree, Art Degree?)
Or any books they could recommend on the subject...

moonmonkey · Dec 22, 2006, 07:45 PM

Can you actually do that for a job?
What kind of companies hire interaction designers?

effgee · Dec 22, 2006, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

Can you actually do that for a job?
What kind of companies hire interaction designers?

<insert any decent industrial design studio here>
<insert any decent web design studio here>
<insert any large e-business here>
<insert any car company>
<insert any consumer electronics company here>
<insert any company that produces physical products users interact with here>

Nebagakid · Dec 22, 2006, 07:59 PM

Tech Jobs: Design, Programming, Rails, Executive, and more.

Wiskedjak · Dec 22, 2006, 08:07 PM

One of the hats I wear is interaction design (the others are information architect and usability specialist). I took a degree in industrial design and morphed it into a digital, rather than physical, product design program. I know a few others who have taken this approach.

Other approaches I've seen have come from graphic design, library sciences (and then information architect), programing. I don't think any of the interaction designers I know took any courses in it, but rather migrated into it from other disciplines.

Wiskedjak · Dec 22, 2006, 08:21 PM

Here's another good source for jobs in this space:
Jobs @ OK/Cancel

effgee · Dec 22, 2006, 08:23 PM

Interaction design as a separate "mainstream discipline" is rather young. As Wiskedjak mentioned above, most of the folks doing "interaction design" these days have morphed into their role coming from lots of different backgrounds ... I've even worked with one or two psychology majors who have ended up in interaction design and are doing a bang-up job.

If you don't have a clear idea of where you might end up job-wise, methinks industrial design would provide you with a solid foundation. If, oth, you already know that you're going to be working in the area of 2D/GUI design, then graphic/interactive design with a firm footing in information architecture and a thorough splash of usability will serve you well.

In the end, an interaction designer is the dude who's going to be responsible for the interface (= the "front-end") users are presented with, and while you should have a decent understanding of the "back-end" (= the technology driving your product), I do not think a "back-end only education" will serve as the perfect preparation for a career in interaction design. There are exceptions confirming this "rule", of course.

As benign as it may sound, the corresponding Wikipedia article is actually a decent launch pad for an extended online excursion.

moonmonkey · Dec 22, 2006, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by effgee

<insert any decent industrial design studio here>
<insert any decent web design studio here>
<insert any large e-business here>
<insert any car company>
<insert any consumer electronics company here>
<insert any company that produces physical products users interact with here>

Thats cool, I just assumed this was handled by industrial designers.
"Interaction designer" does sound like something a kid made up to put on their CV.

Wiskedjak · Dec 22, 2006, 08:30 PM

Another thing I've found, at least in my region, is that you won't always find the jobs titled "Interaction Designer". Often, the job titles here are Business Analyst, Information Architect, and e-learning Developer. My last role was User Researcher, yet I ended up doing a lot of interaction design.

Wiskedjak · Dec 22, 2006, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

Thats cool, I just assumed this was handled by industrial designers.
"Interaction designer" does sound like something a kid made up to put on their CV.

Interaction Designer is basically the digital version of the Industrial Designer (there isn't much "industrial" involve in digital design)

Wiskedjak · Dec 22, 2006, 08:34 PM

Speaking of which, I'm currently between gigs, if anyone knows of some shops looking for remote workers.

cla · Dec 22, 2006, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Peter

Does anyone do this professionally/have an interest in it?
I'm currently doing a degree in CompSci, and Interaction is something that really interests me - curious what people recommend for a career in Interaction Design (Science Degree, Art Degree?)
Or any books they could recommend on the subject...

If you could be more specific as to what part of HCI you're interested in, I'm sure I could recommend a book or two..

Peter · Dec 22, 2006, 10:00 PM

I have a rare opportunity in that the company I'm interning for is a consultant design company (very very similar to IDEO, but more sciences based) -- currently i'm just the IT guy, but was thinking of expanding my Interaction Design knowledge (in terms of physical real world usage, how people interact with actual devices) and offering my services.

cla · Dec 23, 2006, 04:13 PM

Starting out, looking for insights, interested in physical devices. Sound like Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" (it's one of the classics).

moonmonkey · Dec 25, 2006, 12:30 AM

FYI pandora.com are looking for an Interaction Designer.

Judge_Fire · Dec 25, 2006, 06:18 AM

I work in this field, as a teacher in a design university, designing small software things and through a small company. My current interest is in developing Intranet - type of services from within communities ('embedded designer'), so this list of recommendations is tilted that way.

While there are degrees in IxD, a balanced diet of cognitive psychology, graphic/audio design from a communications perspective and software technologies combined with fearless, relentless testing of your work on real life subjects should get you there

Here are some readings that I've either found good or have been recently recommended as interesting. The Norman and Tufte works are considered compulsory.

- Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things
- Edward Tufte Envisioning Information
- Bill Moggridge: Designing Interactions
- Alan Cooper: The Inmates are Running the Asylum
- Dan Saffer: Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices
- Eric Bergman: Information Appliances and Beyond
- Bruce Sterling, Lorraine Wild : Shaping Things
- Jesse James Garrett: The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
- Jonas Löwgren, Erik Stolterman: Thoughtful Interaction Design: A Design Perspective on Information Technology
- David Benyon, Phil Turner, Susan Turner: Designing Interactive Systems: People, Activities, Contexts, Technologies
- Norman Nielsen Group : Intranet Design Annuals (A great, if pricey, way to get a peek into the hidden corporate environments.)

Any comments or critique of the above would be nice to hear, too.

Jn

effgee · Dec 25, 2006, 06:56 AM

I purchased two of the Nielsen group reports (intranet portals and the '05 annual) and must say I was a bit underwhelmed in the "bang for the buck" department. They were a good general read but not really worth the several hundred bucks Jacob has you forking over for them.

And the next person to utter "user-centered design" in my (physical) presence is getting a good whack in the head, there is an idiotic term if I've ever heard one. Mind you, I'm not dissing the principle ... it's merely the terminology that's way too extremist for my taste buds.

Wiskedjak · Dec 25, 2006, 11:39 AM

Seconded on the opinion of Nielsen Group publications.

Judge_Fire · Dec 25, 2006, 05:08 PM

I agree that the nn/g annuals aren't very in-depth, but they serve two interesting functions, IMHO.

One is an overview into what kinds of processes and features are expected or merely accepted in corporate Intranet environments. It's kind of a current snapshot, which you can of course also get by interviewing people from various companies, or through industrial espionage

I also value them as a listing of interesting designers, often talented people behind these kinds of systems aren't well known at all. Though not very deep, these publications are still one kind of topical index of a profession.

As for the price, well, they're a consultancy - charging a lot for stating the obvious is what they do

Judge_Fire · Dec 25, 2006, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by effgee

In the end, an interaction designer is the dude who's going to be responsible for the interface (= the "front-end") users are presented with

Often yes, however the actual visual look may be finalized with graphic designers or artists. An interaction designer can of course wear both hats, but is typically more engaged with the behaviour of a system.

A typical example of this separation is in games design, where the spesific roles of 'level designer' and '3D artist' have become commonplace.

In the design process of games like Half-Life 2 or Unreal Tournament 2007, the level designers usually work with primitive 3D blocks, focusing on the gameplay aspects. This is typical interaction design, thinking of what happens how. The artists focus on creating unique atmospheres and details that take the primitive map further. This is a development cycle that in a good case feeds itself, through dialogue between the level designer, visual artist/designer, audio artist/designer and testers actually using the level.

In this case, there is a spesific instance of the class 'interaction designer' called 'level designer'

Wiskedjak · Dec 25, 2006, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by Judge_Fire

charging a lot for stating the obvious is what they do

It's a nice business model. Gotta develop one like that of my own!

Judge_Fire · Dec 25, 2006, 06:05 PM

Dogbert might be able to help

Wiskedjak · Dec 25, 2006, 06:59 PM

The trick is convincing everyone that you're best in the field, despite evidence to the contrary.

That's skill!

effgee · 08:21 PM

Well, Jacob is indeed one of the best in his field. As long as you take his "preachings" with the proper grain of salt (*), his insights are very, uhm ... useful. In the end, he's like the 15yr. old kid who asks his dad for $100 allowance, knowing full well that – if he's lucky – he'll get $50. And in a world where factors like "usability" and "user-oriented design" (fsck "user-centered") are still under-represented in most projects, we need extremists like him.

I'd much rather spend an hour educating a client on why Nielsen shouldn't be taken too literally than wasting the same amount of time (or more) trying to convince them to consider usability in the first place.

(* – e.g., there's more to any project than just usability, hence my passionate dislike for terms like "user-centered design". Any discipline taking itself way too seriously should be observed with much suspicion.)