Tag: interaction design

  • Practicing Design on Wicked Problems

    In response to a previous comment, I tried to define what an interaction designer does in rebuttal to the assertion that the goal is to build a better mousetrap. I wrote: From an interaction design standpoint, you might ask why we have mousetraps? Are mice the real problem? How do mice get into areas where…

  • Why Learn the Arts?

    Dick Buchanan is in Lisbon for the 2006 Design Research Society International Conference, so today Carl DiSalvo filled in, and nearly stumped us by asking a basic question about our current topic of interest: the arts. “Why learn the arts” he asked. There was a pause, perhaps because it was a tough question to start…

  • Understanding Interaction

    Last week we had to turn in our first paper for Dick Buchanan’s design seminar course. The first four pages were to discuss the central features of each of the four modes of interaction we had studied. The next two pages were to discuss the relationship of form and matter in the four modes. This…

  • Learning the Arts

    Today in our design seminar, we started what Dick Buchanan referred to as the third part of the course: making connections that are significant. (Honestly, I’m not sure what parts one and two were, since I can only think of one previous part: defining the four modes of interaction. Nonetheless, there is so much brain…

  • Plato Knows Interaction

    We’re reading Plato to explore the fourth mode of interaction: person and cosmos. I’m sure most people would not understand why we’re reading Plato to learn about design. It’s possible there are those in my class that feel the same way. I find it extremely interesting to approach Plato and Aristotle—his Poetics was the previous…