Interactions 08 | Thoughts

by KEVIN SILVER :: FEB 27, 2008 :: COMMENTS (0)

A few weeks back, I attended the first ever IxDA international conference, Interactions 08. This wasn't a hodgepodge conference. It had a singular purpose: to discuss and promote the discipline of Interaction Design.

From the speakers to the venue, the whole weekend was a joy. IxDA and their sponsors put on a great conference; we drank and ate well–really well. Also, Savannah couldn’t be beat. It’s a beautiful city steeped in history. Friday afternoon, I was lucky to attend a walking tour of the city given by an architecture professor at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design, the conference host).

From concept models, to design movements and rethinking the browser (don’t make me click) the conference presentations covered the practical to the philosophical and the cutting edge. Alan Cooper started out by continuing his thought provoking discussion on design engineering, claiming that this is where programmers need to be agile, insinuating that agile methodologies cannot lead to production-worthy code. Bill Buxton kicked off the second day, dispelling a few Apple myths and urging the audience to design before building, which of course includes sketching. Bill also gave one of the best explanations of user experience, which really resonated with me. He had a slide that showed the audience a picture of a cyclist barreling a mountain bike through a stream, exemplifying the pleasure and joy of the user. The product enables the experience. You couldn’t have quite the same effect walking through the stream.

Story telling was a prevalent theme throughout the conference, which is a fundamental interaction design concept: as an interaction unfolds, it tells a story of the user and device within the context of his environment. From the presenters, we learned how to record stories using sketching and creating concept models, as well as telling stories using a simple series of photographs and again, concept models. We also learned how to add drama through the use of animation in the interface.

Interestingly, I saw a few of the same faces as at last years IA Summit. I knew there would be an overlap, but I was also pleased to meet and talk with a lot of people who were designing non-web products. And this was the point of the conference, a gathering of practitioners committed to the discipline of interaction design. After all, “interaction design is the new black.” I’m looking forward to next year!

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