As a flavour of design that explicitly focuses on experiences enabled by design, ixd is where a lot of solutions, challenges and changes will be prototyped. By extension, IxDA can be seen as an important actor in the way these shifts in design practice and awareness of design play out.

Here’s some areas I can see IxDA playing a role:

Education: currently the world of interaction design education is very fragmented. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I do see an opportunity for IxDA to play a unique role in bringing programs together under the banner of a global education network to discuss approaches, challenges, and attitudes.

Mentorship: IxDA has an ongoing mentorship program (mentees here, mentors here) and has attracted a lot of people to participate. The requests for mentors far exceed those available, and that’s where I think a design approach can begin to help.

In a global network like IxDA, the mentoring relationship can be seen not only as a way to teach and pass on skills, but also as a way to make weak ties strong. Network theory stresses the importance of weak ties in information traversal, but strong ties are important for scaling the culture of an organization.

Its to this point that I think IxDA can really play a big part: scaling culture. The culture of professional collegiality is something I’d be loath to see these kinds of design lose, as I think there’s far more to be gained by working together than there is from working apart. Bodies like IxDA need to design themselves in order to generate the outcomes they seek: and culture is one of them.

What do I mean? well.. for starters: we have more mentees than mentors. How can we use this as the input for a service design that encourages/creates a culture of continual learning and mentorship? How can we mentor more of our network to be mentors?

* yep. I’ll put those two or three ideas together in one sentence. sosumi

Here’s a few reasons why I’m heading over to Vancouver in February for Interaction’09

The speakers. OMG, the speakers…

I’ve been lucky to be engaged with the planning of this conference, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the presentations. A program with people like John Thackara, Genevieve Bell, Dan Saffer, Fiona Raby, Marc Rettig and Kim Goodwin (and that’s just the keynotes) is going to definitely expand my brain in ways I can’t even begin to imagine.

the tribe & the vibe

I went to interaction’08 earlier this year and was just blown away by, as Alan Cooper said, “all these interaction designers in one room”.

I, like many others, really felt like I’d found my tribe.  So I’m really looking forward to catching up with peeps I met earlier this year, reigninting friendships, meeting new people, and needing no excuse to talk about interaction design. The IxDA is such a fantastic group of practitioners, educators & students that it really feels like I’m at home when I’m hanging out at these conferences. That makes a big difference for someone who has to travel halfway round the world to get there..

the workshops

This is something I missed out on last year, and really wished I hadn’t. The list of available workshops this year is awesome! The main issue for me is working out which ones to do..? I think Steve Portigal’s Workshop: Well, we did all this research … now what? sounds great, and really helpful given the projects I’m going to be doing this next year. Dan Saffer and Bill DeRouchey’s Designing for Touchscreens and Interactive Gestures is definitely on my to do list.. Particularly since the launch of Dan’s new book on the subject

look after the jump for some more info about Interaction’09

From the IxDA announcement:

The Interaction Design Association (IxDA) is pleased to announce Interaction|09, to be held February 5-8, 2009 in conjunction with Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts + Technology, and the Faculty of Business, located in lovely Vancouver, B.C.

Mark your calendars now for what promises to be another exciting and informative conference centered around the design of interactive systems of all types, from web and desktop applications, to mobile devices, consumer electronics, digitally-enhanced environments, and more. This will be our growing community’s second annual opportunity to gather with several hundred other Interaction Design professionals from around the world.

Building on the successful format of Interaction 08 at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Interaction 09 will span four days, with two and a half main conference days preceded by 1 ½ days of pre- conference workshops and activities. Thursday will be devoted to a diverse and valuable series of professional workshops. Friday will be a busy and exciting day, with tours, additional workshops and opportunities to explore SFU, its surrounding community and Vancouver, along with leadership and organizing activities in the morning. The conference will open Friday afternoon, with a welcoming reception that evening.

Saturday and Sunday will be packed with inspirational and tactical sessions geared at anyone who practices Interaction Design. We look forward to Interaction’09 continuing to build on the quality of experience and community camaraderie we shared this year in Savannah.

Look after the jump for a map and listing of the current database.
Here’s an example of where I’m at so far:

The map

A listing of institutions

Back in Feb the IxDA put on Interaction08 in Savannah.
Here’s a roundup of some of the press we had:

Core77 Liveblogged the event
Interaction ‘08…and we’re here
Interaction ‘08 : Jared Spool : What Makes Design Seem Intuitive?
Interaction ‘08 : Bill DeRouchey : Conversations with Everyday Objects
Interaction ‘08 : Gabriel White : Ethics of Everyday Design
Interaction ‘08 : Bill Buxton : Keynote
Interaction ‘08 : Michele Tepper : Design Across Disciplines
Interaction ‘08 : Chris Bernard : Classic Design Movements and IxD
Interaction ‘08 : Coroflot Job Board
Interaction ‘08 : Parties, Pictures, People
Interaction ‘08 : Signing off…

more to come in a bit..

lifesaver

On the PhD front, I visited with Prof. Terry Winograd and Bill Verplank at Stanford University, and spoke with them about their work educating for IxD and designing Stanford’s d.School.

While in the bay area I also visited Danny Stillion at IDEO Palo Alto, spoke with Dan Saffer about his new studio and upcoming book with O’Reilly Media, and led a lunchtime workshop on links between IxD academia and industry with Adaptive Path.

Later, in Vancouver, I worked on visions for the Interaction Design Association with the rest of the IxDA board of directors, and  pre-conference planning with the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at SFU, for Interaction09.

I am now very happy to be back in the land of real mobile bandwidth.