Funny; my position seems to develop in the opposite direction.
I have a solid background in academia, arguably understanding the
concepts of method, theory and grounding quite well. I have been
teaching first HCI, then interaction design for 22 years now. The
trajectory of my teaching has been distinctly going from "application
of theory and proven methods" to "studio-based craft plus reflection."
As my experience grows, I am becoming increasingly convinced of the
value of craft skills and, even more importantly, of knowing the
design materials of the digital realm. This is based on my anecdotal
perceptions of resulting student capabilities and employability, as
well as on my ongoing contacts with the local and international
interaction design industry.
It might seem as if I am moving backwards in time compared to the rest
of the world. I do not think this is the case, however. Comparing my
position with the one Don proposes in the recent Core 77 column, I
think the resolution might lie in the question of what craft skills we
are talking about.
In the educational settings I am active in, the topics are all about
multidisciplinary design of "the interface between technology and
people" (as Don puts it). My point is that it seems more effective to
teach such topics using studio-based learning methods, treating the
subject matter as craft skills to be acquired through apprenticing and
scaffolding (on the making as well as on the reflecting/articulating).
The scope of interaction design is undeniably expanding from digital
products to services, environments and societal processes.
Importantly, this does not necessarily mean that the discipline of
interaction design needs to grow accordingly. I tend to find it more
important than ever that the interaction designer establishes an
identity in terms of craft skills and material knowledge. The designer-
generalist seems to me to be an inferior aim. Doing a little bit of
everything entailed in a contemporary design project necessarily means
doing most things quite poorly. Better, then, to know your strengths
and be trained to work with specialists from all the other fields
involved.
One last comment: My students are required to draw all the time.
However, not many of them could draw a decent still life. They "draw"
in pencil, of course, but also in language, photography, collages,
video, enactments, cardboard, Arduino and software. Drawing is not a
simple category, when it comes to contemporary design education.
Jonas Löwgren
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