IXDSN 3600

Instructor: ‣

Office: IXD Office, 1111 8th Ave. CCA San Francisco Campus

Office hours: By appt. I will be hosting open office zoom sessions weekly as chair - feel free to drop into those or make an appt. to chat one on one.

What is interaction design, where did this field come from? What is the lineage of this emergent field? Depending on who you ask, you might get a different answer.

Interaction design wasn’t invented from scratch or developed as a self-contained practice. Our practice emerged out of the intersection and integration of a number of disciplines from within design (graphic design, industrial design, game design), social sciences (anthropology, psychology, human factors), but also from printing & communication, architecture, computer science and beyond. There are many different definitions of what it is and through this course we will explore key moments along some of these disciplines that have come together to make this field.

This course will highlight key figures, well known and lesser known, as well as key moments in time that are major points of change and integration of practices. We will seek out underrepresented and marginalized voices that are often left out of the mainstream history books and we will consider how designers, artists and authors envision the future of interaction through analysis of past design work, exploring technology through science fiction and speculative futures design.

Through readings, videos, and your own writings, you will explore your own perception of these moments and begin developing your own unique voice as an interaction designer placed within this interesting and dynamic lineage.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will be able to cogently write about lesser known figures from Interaction Design History, discuss their work and achievements, and place them in the context of their discipline or related discipline as well as the general historical era with appropriate citations and bibliography.
Students will be able to successfully compare and contrast different important points, events or concepts within the history of Interaction Design (through it's multi-disciplinary lineage) in writing or video posts or sketches.
Students will be able to deconstruct where the practice of Interaction Design evolved from and illustrate this via writings and diagrams.
By the end of the course, students should be able to assess current technology, understand the lineage and consider the ethics and future states of that technology - i.e. VR, Voice, AI, etc. and take a stance about the future of interaction design and AI and write about this in their blog.
By the end of the course, students will have established their own written voice through critically discussing and analyzing the history of interaction design in a public forum via blog postings.

What We Are Doing Over the Semester

Weekly Assignments

Assignment Due Dates (at a glance)

Visual Syllabus

Online Etiquette

Class Blog / Website

Interaction Design History Fall 2020

You will receive a contributor account and will be expected to post your writings, sketches and comments based on each writing or sketching prompt. The site is also configured so that you may comment on your classmates work as required for each week's writings.

At the end of each section, commenting will be locked to avoid trolls and in order for me to understand who posted and commented on time. (this will usually be around Wednesday after the Sunday night due date).