Interaction designers: What do you want to hear about from an experienced interaction designer?

August 30, 2008 2:36 PM

Interaction designers: What do you want to hear about from an experienced interaction designer?

Hi fellow interaction design/user experience professionals. I've been invited to write an article and/or speak at an interaction design conference. I'm very interested in contributing to the community in these ways, I'm just having trouble figuring out what to talk about.

I don't have a narrow specialization or a methodology I'm passionate about, but I'm sure I have some knowledge or experience that would be interesting to practitioners. I don't want to find myself presenting work that's so specific as not to be relevant to others, or presenting something that is so widely practiced as not to be news to anyone.

The purpose of these sorts of events and articles are typically either instructional or trend-spotting. I'm probably more suited to instructional topics, but I'm open to trends as well.

I've been practicing our discipline professionally for about 12 years now (jeez, has it been that long?!) in a range of media and industries. I've designed for websites, applications, devices, and out of home/emerging platforms. I've worked on big and small teams, as a freelancer and full-timer, for design agencies, ad firms, start-ups, and small and big companies. I've mentored and managed creative teams, worked successfully with scores of engineers and visual designers, and clients of all different backgrounds. I've probably designed something you've used. Presumably this is what got me invited to speak.

So here's the question: What do you want to hear someone like me talk about? Or do you have suggestions that would help me figure out what to talk about?

Since this content will be created for professional interaction designers, I'm specifically looking for responses from professional interaction designers, and maybe those who work very closely with them.

Posting anonymously because I'm easily tracked back to my employer, who has not endorsed any of this yet. Questions? Email [e-mail].

And thanks for your suggestions!

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (2 answers total)

I've liked case studies...

For instance, I remember a presentation done by someone at apple showing paper prototypes made of drawings on paper with interface widgets cutouts swapped in and out. Changes were made in real time during testing. I had always heard about this, but was reluctant to try doing it until I saw it. Same with imbedding video in ppt and using the MS stencils to create visio interface diagrams more easily. Something that builds chops and adds to your technique is pretty valuable as a practitioner. Another example would be the testing examples posted by Jesse James Garrett, which showed me how to realistically test and build conceptual models.

So... I guess I want to see and hear about techniques and or processes I don't know about. Building taxonomies for CMS related projects could be interesting, since we are being asked to do that more and more. But I would probably always be interested in learning how to build better kickbutt paper prototypes quick and easily for applications. Even web-based stuff now is very interactive and complex. Another idea I would like to see is examples of work done in conjunction with an interactive standards library.

Personally, I would also like to know more about working freelance versus working for a company, and more about your approach to non web/application interactive projects.
posted by xammerboy at 8:05 PM on August 30, 2008

Seconding prototyping techniques. It's always interesting to see how a project changes and adapts along the way to completion. Especially if it involves learning to use a new program or feature in a program to speed things up. Case studies, past projects, or even a "cooking channel"-like show where you design/redesign live with pre-planned steps, just to show them the workflow would be well received.

Useful business tips are great as well, and can be tailored to the audience: young audience=how to get started/"the basics"; experienced audience=integrating new techniques, business deals, etc.

For a more theoretical discussion, talk about trends of the industry, past and present, and highlight new techniques/technologies that are moving it in new directions. Being able to predict the future is always a great way to make people feel more prepared (and think you are a wise-man/woman).
posted by PixelatorOfTime at 10:54 PM on August 30, 2008