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CALL FOR ARTICLES
Loop: The AIGA Journal of Interaction Design Education
Loop is an interactive, web-based journal providing a forum for presenting
research that illuminates and advances understanding of the relationship
between practice and pedagogy in the emerging discipline of interaction and
visual interface design. It serves those investigating new methods of
constructing meaningful and effective communication in the new digital
environment, with a special emphasis on the role of interactivity and
nonlinear, multithreaded structures of information design and narrative
sequencing.
As on on-line publication, the journal will regularly publish refereed
articles as well as timely reviews of books, websites and interactive
artifacts. It will also include a moderated discussion list allowing for
ongoing debate of issues raised by the journal's contributors and readers.
The editors of Loop are actively seeking contributions for its inaugural
edition (October, 2000) addressing the following subject areas:
Cross-disciplinary models in interaction design practice and education
Applied projects in interaction design education
Diagrammatic approaches to representing interaction design
Historical precedents in interaction design
Emphasizing usability in the curriculum
For more information on Loop, read about the mission, editorial policies
and submission formats.
Loop is co-sponsored by the AIGA and Virginia Commonwealth University's
Center for Design Studies.
Mission
Loop is an on-line journal concerned with the nexus of issues surrounding
practice, education and research in interactive media design. The journal
will focus on the pressing issues surrounding the reconstitution of design
education as it confronts the emerging world of computer-mediated artifacts
and communication. The editors of Loop are committed to creating a dynamic
and intellectually rigorous forum for reporting on the theoretical and
pragmatic issues arising as design education moves its focus from the
production of concrete artifacts to the design of interactive information
systems.
Loop will provide a significant forum for practitioners, educators and
researchers in interactive media design who see their work as impacting the
future of design education. The journal will aspire to create a common
ground between interaction design professionals and educators, and focus on
issues of mutual interest to both parties.
The journal is an experiment in using an on-line, interactive environment
in which to report upon, demonstrate and critique interaction design theory
and projects. It seeks to establish a credible and viable forum in which
academic standards of reporting on research are coupled with the fluid
exchange of ideas that is uniquely supported by the Internet and World Wide
Web.
Areas of concern
Interactive media design is viewed as requiring a diverse set of core
competencies from its practitioners including: technical skills, strategic
planning, usability and human factors, computer-human interaction theory,
communication-theory and collaborative work. It is the important role of
education to prepare aspiring practitioners in these areas (or at minimum
to prepare them to recognize the importance of these areas of development
as they enter the profession). Factoring these new issues into existing
design programs is not an easy matter. At minimum, these skill sets expand
the number of issues that need to be addressed in what are already densely
packed graphic design curricula. What they also represent are new areas of
expertise, in which there are few accepted or well-developed methods for
instruction (and few qualified educators to deliver them).
Interactive media design is a hybrid discipline, built upon the computer's
ability to simulate and synthesize diverse content areas such as
typography, photography, video, sound and animation. As a hybrid, the
discipline draws upon all of these areas for its theoretical underpinnings.
It is clear however, that the physical, social and political implications
of the medium require the development of new modes of analysis and new
areas of discourse. Educational institutions have a strategic role to play
in the development and codification of a history and theory of interactive
media design, and to engage in, and extend basic research. Loop, it is
hoped, will become a forum in which these important issues can be
addressed.
This shifting of the context of design and of the designed artifact is a
key area of concern for the journal. It is expected that, as an interactive
publication, the journal will exist as a reflection of the world that it
attempts to describe; that it will provide a forum as fluid and malleable
as the current pace of technological change would seem to require.
In launching the journal, we identify the following as important categories
of inquiry:
1. The changing context of design: from atoms to bits, from artifacts to
systems. Design process is in a period of rapid metamorphosis, reorienting
from a concern with the planning of objects to the planning of actions,
from the experience of the discrete to the experience of the sequential,
from linear information to nonlinear information, from broadcast to
pointcast, from serving readers to serving the users.
2. The importance of user-centeredness in product definition and product
development. Successful interaction design implies a fluid interchange of
information between man and machine. To be an effective partner in its
interaction with users, an interface needs to anticipate and to model
appropriate sequences of information exchange with a broad range of
participants. Well-designed systems base these models on a careful study of
the human context of man-machine interaction, considering the relevant
cognitive, social, economic and political implications of information
automation.
3. The growing importance of strategic planning and analysis in the design
of complex systems. Even the simplest interactive system design requires a
significant, multistage effort. Effective strategies for tackling projects
involving large amounts of information, complicated relations between
information sets and diverse user requirements demand a system-oriented
design approach to design. Systems design, in turn, demands vigorous
planning and analysis. Intuitive, improvisational approaches, which are
effective in certain form making situations, are rarely viable models for
the development of interactive systems.
4. The establishment of theories of interactive media design that transcend
the current technological environment. Diverting pedagogical focus away
from technological skill affords an inquiry into the nature of what
interaction is and to the adaptation or invention of ways of thinking about
interaction that are not the exclusive domains of new media. Theories drawn
from Drama, the Social Sciences, Film and Music, for example, have had
significant impact on interaction design practice. Exploration of these
parallels continue. Effective means of translating established theory and
practice from other domains is a central point of discussion in interaction
design education and practice.
5. The challenges of interdisciplinary and collaborative work required by
professional practice. Interactive media design is a participatory endeavor
where the designer may operate at different levels of involvement within a
team approach. Team-based design involves integrating collaborative efforts
of unique as well as overlapping areas of specialization. Developing
multidisciplinary skill sets in individuals, and creating situations in
which collaborative work on complex projects can be carried out by teams of
students is a significant challenge in curriculum planning.
6. The challenge of introducing significant coursework in interactivity
that extend and build upon time-honored concepts and methods from existing
design practice. The term "new media" taken literally implies a new
substrate in which to express information; it does not imply the creation
of an entirely new profession. Networked computer environments do
constitute a new medium, and a new set of challenges in media integration.
No matter how much the technological environment changes, however, the
requirements of human vision and cognition remain the same. New media
should build on an understanding of "old" media. Given this, the problem of
educating new media professionals is one of fitting a significant range of
new issues into four-year curricula that are already bursting with required
coursework.
Editorial Policies
As a website, the journal will adopt a publication schedule based upon a
model of evolving content. As articles are received and readied for
publication, they will be made available. The site will also serve as an
archive of previously published material. In this sense, the journal will
exist as a database of research results and critical discussion surrounding
the issues raised by the research. This model does not preclude
establishing certain themes and delivering a number of solicited articles
simultaneously.
Articles submitted to the journal will be subject to a peer-review process
to determine their appropriateness and accuracy. Articles will be drawn
from freely submitted material and invited papers.
The journal will be divided into two sections. The first will house
contributed articles, reviews and possibly other forms of submission such
as project briefs, experimental work and reviews of books, conferences and
interactive products (of all kinds). The second section will consist of a
moderated forum in which an ongoing and vigorous discussion will occur
surrounding journal content and other issues pertinent to the readership.
The journal will initially be provided free of charge, and be open to the
entire web. This policy is aimed at generating the widest possible
audience, and to maximize the positive effects that an open and vigorous
discussion will have on education and practice in interactive media design.
The review process
Representatives of the journal and the AIGA will initially review all
abstracts and fully developed articles and papers using the following
criteria:
1.Relevance to the journal mission
2.Originality of the work
3.Written presentation
4.The condition of copyright for previously published material
Accepted abstracts and papers will generate an acceptance reply via e-mail
or telephone, as well as any or all of the following:
1.Commentary on submission including recommendations on content development if
submission is an abstract.
2.Specific length and scope delimitation that may require editing of full
text articles
3.Format requirements of final submission.
4.An agreement stating the status requirements of copyright on any
information and/or images that accompanies the submission. Reproduction
rights for material submitted to the journal will be limited to online use.
Reproduction in other forms, if applicable, will be negotiated.
5.A deadline for submitting a draft version and/or final version including
all images that may be used.
Submission Formats
Individuals and groups interested in contributing to Loop are encouraged to
submit papers, articles, case studies and projects using the following
guidelines.
Submission guidelines
Identification: All submissions must be clearly identified as follows:
Name
E-mail address
Daytime phone number
Affiliated organization or institution
Abstracts: An abstract may be submitted for case studies, projects or for
nonconventional submissions for which fully developed articles or papers is
not appropriate. Abstracts should describe the proposed form the final
submission is to be presented in.
Abstracts should be limited to 200-400 words.
Fully developed papers and articles: Papers and articles must be
accompanied by a 200-400 word abstract, clearly stating the submissions
contribution to the journal's mission.
Submissions should contain no proprietary or confidential material and
should cite no proprietary or confidential publications.
Previously published articles and previously presented papers will be
considered. Details of publishing or presentation must be included. The
author must secure required permissions for any rights of reproduction.
Format
Abstracts and full text papers must be submitted in both hardcopy (three
complete copies) and digital format (readable in ACSI TEXT, PDF or MSWord).
Imagery may be submitted separately from text in digital form, but clearly
identified when referenced in the text. Acceptable digital formats include
the following: TIFF, flattened PhotoShop format, GIF animation, FLASH,
SHOCKWAVE. The editors may request additional conditions depending on the
context and use of imagery.
Digital work must be submitted on ZIP or JAZ disk(s) (PC or Mac) or CD.
Please do not send URL's for full text articles.
Contact information
Loop: the AIGA Journal of Interaction Design Education
Center for Design Studies
Communication Arts + Design Department
Virginia Commonwealth University
325 N. Harrison Box 842519
Richmond, VA 23284-2519
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
About the Editors
Roy McKelvey attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, where he received his master's degree in Visual Interface
Design. He currently teaches graphic design and interaction design at
Virginia Commonwealth University. McKelvey was a frequent participant as a
faculty advisor in Apple Computer's annual Interface Design projects,
supervising students in many notable projects including the "Muse" project,
a winner of Interaction magazine's Interactions Design Award in 1995. He
has written and lectured on subjects related to the design of interactive
systems internationally, and has authored and designed a book on website
design entitled Hypergraphics for Rotovision SA in England. He recently
co-edited a book with Philip Meggs, entitled Revival of the Fittest:
Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces for Print magazine's book publishing
division, RC Publications. In addition to his teaching, McKelvey works as a
website designer with Communication Design Inc. in Richmond Virginia.
Steven Hoskins is assistant professor at VCU in the Department of
Communication Arts + Design. Steven practiced print design and illustration
in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore before receiving his MFA in Graphic
Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. He subsequently specialized
in interactive media design as senior art director for Firefly Network,
Cambridge, MA, and as design director for Terry Swack Design Associates,
Boston. Clients he has work for include Bell Atlantic, Apple Computer, 3M,
Forrester Research, Harvard Law School and MIT. He has presented lectures
on his work at RIT, RISD, Northwestern University and the MIT Media Lab. In
addition to professional practice, Hoskins has taught in the design
programs of the Corcoran School of Art, Towson State University, University
of Maryland Baltimore County and the Rhode Island School of Design. He was
visiting assistant professor teaching interactive media and graphic design
at Rochester Institute of Technology before coming to VCU.
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management
+47 22.98.51.07 Direct line
+47 22.98.51.11 Telefax
Home office:
+46 (46) 53.245 Telephone
+46 (46) 53.345 Telefax
email: [log in to unmask]
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