Interaction Design Intensive

23.04.2012 - 24.04.2012

Interaction Design Intensive is a new two-day course that initiates the participants to the art and craft of designing interactive products. The course is a first step in building a selection of professional development courses in Aalto PRO that aim on developing the design of interactive products in Finland.

For Whom

The course is intended for professionals who want to understand better how to use interaction design for lasting strategic impact. We prefer participants who already have some working experience in either interaction design, interactive design, digital products and services or related field and want to deepen their expertise.

The course is also suitable for designers from other disciplines - for example industrial design or communication design - who want to expand their experience to a new field or for design and product managers who want to be able to understand how to design better, people driven products that have lasting impact to business. If you are uncertain if the course would suit you, please contact our contact person.

Content

The course focuses on product interaction design. A detailed course programme can be found under the Program tab.

Program

1st Day: The Right Design

Introduction to the course
Lecture: The portrait of an interaction designer
Discussion: What makes a great interactive product?
Two lectures: Discover & Define
Two exercises: Discover & Define
Conclusion and feedback + a small exercise for the next day

2nd Day: Getting the Design Right

Summary and feedback from the 1st day
Lecture and discussion: Interaction design in the "real world"
Two lectures: Develop & Deliver
Two exercises: Develop & Delver
Conclusion and feedback

Notes on course structure

The course is structured around the double-diamond design process established by the British Design Council. See: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/designprocess

The exercises are group exercises done in an open studio setting using non-digital equipment (pen, paper, etc.). People work in groups on their tasks and everyone can also move freely in the space and eavesdrop on the discussions in the other groups. This puts the limited time of sharig the same space with other experienced professionals into maximum use.

Lecturer

Sami Niemelä

Sami Niemelä is the creative director and one of the founding partners of Helsinki-based design firm Nordkapp. He has worked on all things internet since 1997 between Helsinki and London designed products and services used by millions of people..

In his work, Sami is always looking for ways to make the world a bit more meaningful by combining the bleeding edge with business viability and good design for real people to use and enjoy.

Apart from design work, he's lectured at the Aalto University School of Economics about design thinking, synthesis, and execution for several years and is an emerging public speaker on the topic of behavior and future of connected objects and environments—most recently in Interaction 12 in Dublin, Playful 11 in London, Cognitive Cities Berlin and several occations in Helsinki. On his spare time, he’s also one of the founders and organizers at IxDA Helsinki, the local interaction design community.

Interaction Design

What is interaction design for?

Complex information-intensive products, services and systems are now deeply embedded in the fabric of our lives. We, as humans, cannot literally function properly without our computers, the software that runs on them, the services they access and the personal information stored in them.

The more we rely on these connected technologies, the more dependant we become of them. We evaluate their behavior and functionality with criticism, developing an intolerance toward buggy products, user-interfaces and service touch points. There is a pressing demand for better design to shape the digital touch points present in our lives.

Interaction design is the art and craft of designing behaviour and interactions of products and services. By definition, interaction design is a generalist practice, but the things interaction designers give form to, are very concrete and tangible. They can be - but are not limited to - mobile and web applications, interactive services and systems, connected devices or even physical objects and environments.

People working as interaction designers are “T-shaped” — they have deep expertise on their core craft and solid understanding of overlapping disciplines such as visual design, human-centric design, service design, user research, information architecture or business design. Interaction designers consider their work in relation to the larger context — the interface in a service, a digital product in it’s environment — and the user, asking questions of who the users of the product are, what are their needs and what motivates them.

With all this technology around us, we need specialists who can wrangle this development into a human-centric path. It is not given that the present developments will turn out into a glorious and well-formed triumph in the near future. For this reason, we need interaction designers who have the competence to meet this challenge.

Text: Sami Niemelä & Ville Tikkanen

-- 8.3.2012