IxDA Library

We all have reason to be proud of the progress our profession has made in recent years. Awareness of (and demand for) interaction design is at an all-time high. We have better job opportunities and better salaries than ever before. Product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders are increasingly drawn to interaction design’s promise: more successful products and services, greater customer loyalty, and more efficient and effective processes.

Though we’ve accomplished a great deal, our chosen field is not yet mature. There aren’t enough skilled practitioners to meet the demand we’ve created. Far too many of our best ideas still don’t make it into the hands of users. Many stakeholders still don’t know how to make the best use of our skills. All of us—together and as individuals—must find ways to address these issues if we are to deliver on the promise of our profession.

In the midst of a global conversation about change, many designers are pondering their own impact in the world. How does our experience in software interfaces, web sites, and physical products prepare us to address the profound issues humanity is facing? These issues involve many complex systems, systems too big to fit into the scope of any single company or institution. Design methods are potent at large scale and scope, but what does it take to be effective as a practitioner, as a team, as a company? What is it like to actually achieve a meaningful, sustainable, positive difference in life?

In this talk Marc Rettig offers insights into that question, drawing lessons from a number of serious, heartfelt attempts to affect change. The work we have all done in recent decades has prepared us to take on much bigger challenges. The foundations of design remain powerfully effective. That said, there are ways in which “designing for change” requires additions to our inventory of methods, and transformations in the way we plan and conduct our work.

Dan Saffer calls out the Interaction Design community for allowing distracting topics to consume our attention, and for paying too little attention to "moonwalking bears," the opportunities interaction designers can take advantage of in the near future.

John Thackara shows the ways in which business as we know it are about to change for good, and then identifies how interaction designers can take these challenges on as design problems.

Robert Fabricant talks about Interaction Design as a practice beyond just computing technology. He gives examples of Interaction Design as far back as ancient history, all the way to a humanitarian project underway today. He shows that Interaction Design's primary medium is behavior, extending far past the high technology world into the realm of human behavior and relationships.