Core77

Very interesting article. I disagree with you about the keypad options. Why CAN'T you have both the top-down and bottom-up configurations? Perhaps give users the options (a la Num Lock key) to switch between one and the other, if they needed to?

Another program in New York that focuses on this topic is the Parsons School of Design, MFA in Design and Technology.

The program is very similar to the ITP program.

Enjoyed reading your article, some great points there. I suggest taking a look at the Industrial Design department at the university of technology at eindhoven, the netherlands.

Their educational model supports the importance of interaction design, one of the corner-stones of their paradigm.

It's a relatively new education, and is recently acquiring momentum in the world of design. Several key-players have begun collaboratting with this department for future design projects.

Quite a suitable addition to your article, I believe...

Interaction design was practiced religiously at the Henry Dreyfus office since 1945 and has been the benchmark of my firm of 34 years except it wasn't/isn't called interaction design. It was called designing for people which meant that the designer was responsible for analyzing the product, the user, the manufacturer, and society. Most industrial design schools are staffed by teachers who are primarily stylists with little understanding of functional, "interactive" factors that create successful products. Maybe a new buzz phrase, "interaction design," will stimulate colleges to seek administrators and teachers who understand that industrial design is not a styling exercise but a synergy of fulfilling needs for manufacturers, users and society.

Thanks for the very good article, David. It's true, Industrial Designers can learn so much from Interaction Designers (and the related disciplines like Information Architecture) and they can also teach IxDs and IAs many things. I hold a university degree in Industrial Design and many "classic" industrial products result from my sketches and 3D-CAD files. Parallel to my studies and afterwards in the late 1990ies I worked on both, hardware design and UI design of 3rd generation (UMTS) mobiles and medical devices before I took a job as Information Architect in 2000 (the field I am still working in). Observing design from so many perspectives over years make me sure, Industrial Designers and Interaction Designers will be more than just "perfect partners", as you described, the two disciplines will merge into each other in the near future, as on the one hand there won't be many industrial products without any kind of (electronic) interaction and on the other hand we will use the web more and more with devices that won't have a mouse, standardized keyboard and screen solution.

I love the thesis of this article, and the calls to action. An oversight - the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology focuses on involving people in the product and communication design process. While not labeled "interaction design" specifically, the methods taught at ID are at the core of interaction design practice.

Ecole nationnal superieu de creation industrielle School: ENSCI.
Program: http://www.designnumerique.net

A global approach in product and service design.
(where interaction design is just one part of the problem, but the more important)

Hi everyone, Thanx for the comments and suggestions of programs.

Often it is hard to find some programs b/c of the lack of semantic agreement we have.

Something I wanted to point out is that I think I made a mistake when including ITP. Not b/c it isn't a good program, nor that it doesn't have courses on interaction design, but that it's program is not focused on interaction design.

I have gotten suggestions from peers to include Parsons Design & Technology program and the California College of Arts new transdisciplinary design program as well. Both include even heavy components of interaction design, so people should be aware of both. And the suggestions people make in the comments here are all good.

But I think for this article and for myself, it is important to highlight those institutions that have made the commitment/decision to focus on interaction design as the core to the program, and not as a part of a greater whole.

I think there are actually many many more institutions where IxD is taught and taught well around the world. To create a comprehensive list is beyond my scope and interest here-in.

Also, in my history section, I want to clarify that I was not trying to be comprehensive either. I was trying to give a sense of the history, but not to relate it in its totality. That again would be a daunting task for me and for the editors.

Thanks for the good article. Basically interaction design is in every product. It is a bit frustrating that most people associate interaction design with websites while the field is a lot broader. Glad to read more people out there think it can be an integral part of industrial design.

I agree with your core message that someone in ID is already practicing interaction design, but I will challenge your assertion that the industrial designer is primarily form, color, texture driven. 'Fashion' ID, as it applies to furniture, furnishings, accessories, beautiful objects (electronic and non), should not be considered as representative of the discipline. Human factors knowledge has been a core component of the true industrial designer, notably in the area of anthropometrics, ergonomics and human psychology. The defacto process for iD is investigation, creation, execution, something that is a relative rarity in the emerging space of interaction design. So I'll agree with you, but I'd also like to suggest that the discipline of interaction design could and should be learning from industrial design.