Derek Chan

There’s a noticeable gap since my last post about school because this past week has been beyond hectic. But, with that out of the way, I can now talk about the final two classes from this fall semester.

Strategic Innovation in Product/Service Design is taught by John Zapolski and is a very interesting class because strategy is one of those buzzwords that gets tossed around a lot, but few are  able to clearly articulate its meaning like John can. Strategy is also one of those topics that I was only partially involved in back when working at Interactive Partners. I’m looking forward to getting the most out of this class because frankly, I don’t think strategy is very easy to learn, let alone used effectively. My opinion is, what distinguishes an interaction designer is their involvement in the strategy phase of a project and their ability to communicate strategy to professionals of all types. A lot of practitioners say they are involved in strategy, but it’s likely they’re involved in planning instead, which John indicated is quite distinct from strategy. John is also an incredible lecturer and I can sense the confidence in his voice when he speaks – a characteristic that not all instructors or practitioners have, I’ve noticed. I’m hoping some of that can rub off on me as well because presentation and communication is something I need to work on while in school.

The last class to be mentioned is Interaction Design Fundamentals taught by Chris Fahey. As the name of the class suggests, what we are learning are the essential building blocks of interaction design. I find this class to be the most immediately useful to all of us because for most who have not been exposed to interaction design in the workplace, the methodologies and analytic skills Chris is teaching us can make an impact right away. For me, since I’ve read my fair share of books in interaction/user experience design and because I’ve been practicing for a couple years already, the first two classes have more or less been review to me.  Nevertheless, it’s always refreshing to listen to someone else talk about these fundamentals because there are ever so slight differences in their approach and perspective. The first assignment Chris gave us has been my favorite thus far – basically doing an observational study of a product, service, or environment and discerning what the touch points for interaction were, if any, and what experiential qualities could be exhibited while paying attention to user behaviors.  I did my study on public restrooms, which I will write about in more detail soon.

That wraps up my analysis of the first few weeks of school. More to come as the assignments/projects roll in!