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Reflections from an ITPD Graduate

(Posted Spring 2003)

Team Work
PRO
We did almost everything in teams and while it was totally stressful to me at times, the emphasis on team work is good training for the real world. Design is no longer a lone designer toiling away in the workshop by themselves. Design is interdisciplinary and social, and the structure of the course reflected this nicely.

CON
The biggest problem with team work is balance. Sometimes people don't contribute very much, or we don't share the same vision for the project. (e.g. "I want to make something impressive and will work the entire weekend to do it" vs. "I just want to pass".) There were people who would hide behind group and claim the group's work as their own, when they in fact did very little. While this is annoying (and sometimes de-motivating) to the people who actually did the work, the real problem is that the professors cannot give this person the necessary kick in the ass. I think failing a project can motivate somebody, since they know clearly that their level of work is not acceptable. By only looking at groups (and giving everyone in the group the same mark) these people never learn this important lesson until too late (e.g. writing the thesis, getting a job).

With all the intensive group work, which was a new experience for me, it would have been nice to have some suggestions and tips for working in teams. I would have liked to have had more support with this, instead of just being constantly thrown into projects where we somehow have to figure out a way to work together. Obviously every situation is different and requires creating ad hoc solutions, but it would be nice to have a foundation to build on. Maybe case studies would work?

Reflecting
PRO
The key idea that designers have to continuously reflect on their work was a crucial lesson for me. I completely bought into Schön's whole concept of reflecting in and on action. After every course we would pull out the yellow post-its and reflect on what worked and what didn't as well as our own roles. It was also interesting to see how our comments and experiences helped to shape the course for the students in the year after us.

CON
We had many design critiques, and we often received detailed feedback from projects and papers. However, there were a few instances when I received no feedback. One paper I wrote had no comments because it was "fine". (Other students got comments.) Now, it may have been "fine", but it wasn't perfect and it isn't helpful to be told that something is "fine". (Actually, it seems lazy more than anything.) There were no also comments for an anthropology paper I wrote, and again that annoyed me because I don't know what parts of it worked and which ones didn't. I can read the paper over and reflect on it myself, but it seems crucial to have an external expert opinion to help me to develop my skills.

Communication
PRO
We organized a design conference for people in industry, and we organized an open house to exhibit our work. We were encouraged to be constantly thinking about portfolios, posters, video and how to communicate our work. We also investigated various ways to communicate (web, video, animation, mockups, scenarios, comics, stories, etc.) This was great practice since communication is essential to practicing design.

CON
We didn't create anything that would "wow" an outsider. I don't feel that we made anything that would impress an 8-year old. (I first heard the "8 year-old" test being used for determining if your career was important. If you couldn't explain your job to an 8 year-old chances are you weren't doing something very useful.) Basically, if an 8 year-old finds it interesting, then everyone will find it interesting. Basically, less academic. More interactive. I found that other interaction design schools focus on making great demos that they can haul around to conferences. They are a half advertising and half conversation piece. The actual design may not be so earth shattering, but the demos serve a social function of bringing people together. We can do this -- but we always had more "boring" deliverables to focus on. (presentations, posters, a video, etc.) I would like to have a cool model, or demo in the studio that we could go to whenever someone came by the studio and said, "So, what do you guys do here?"

I remember we had an open house the first year, we basically had to invent a series of exhibits (e.g. dancing lego robots, tinkering table, slide show) since nothing we had was enough to stand on its own (the interactive lamps were an exception).

Industry
PRO
The connection to industry is definitely the key strength of the ITPD programme. Part of the Mads Clausen Institute is the Danfoss user centred design group, so as a student we always had access to designers working on real projects. We also had access to companies that we could collaborate with. Not everyone in my class took advantage of this, but I think they are going to regret that decision now that they have to start looking for a job. I'm continuing my thesis work at Novo Nordisk in the fall, and I feel that having a real world context in which to design is crucial to do doing design. If you sit at a desk and invent people, problems and designs to solve these problems I don't think you can call that design.

The programme also stressed that we think about what role we hope to play in the design process after graduation. Starting to think about this early is crucial for finding work, especially in a relatively new field like interaction design, where we need to play a more active role in defining opportunities.

CON
Well, a focus on industry means that you might not do some of the more fun, or silly projects. This goes back to the lack of cool demos. It will be hard to find a reason to build a fun demo for a company (Although this may have just been my timing. The Danfoss museum is expanding into a science theme park, which sounds like there should be lots of opportunities to design and build fun exhibits. There is also a new project around building an interactive playground with Kompan, which also sounds quite fun.)

Equipment
PRO
We had great equipment. Great computers with all the necessary software (Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, iMovie, etc.) We had video cameras and digital cameras. We had access to laser printers, colour printers and poster sized printers. The model workshop was basic, but adequate. The electronics workshop was excellent, and so was the machine workshop. We had a fast internet connection and lots of disk space.

CON
I think the computers were used too much. A computer can only be used by one person, yet over the past two years I saw many groups try to work at a computer together. It's a painful sight. One person doing all the work and others sitting around watching, and occasionally making a comment or pointing to the screen. What is wrong with paper? No one on this planet can sketch faster in Illustrator than on paper, so why use the computer? It's also so much harder to do work on the computer that it encourages a first draft=final draft mentality.

I also found the computers were an extremely irritating thing to have in the studio sometimes. Computers can be used for work, but they can also be used to download movie trailers, listen to music, play games, chat rooms, etc. I personally never went to the studio while writing my thesis, because it was just too annoying. There was always someone doing some very loud procrastinating.

I'm not suggesting banning computers, but perhaps their use should be limited to the later stages in the design process when you are working on presenting ideas. Everyone could also be more reflective on how they use computers. Where do they help the design process and where do they hinder it?

Research
PRO
The library in Sønderborg is tiny, but we had incredible online resources (ACM portal, Proquest, etc.) and most books could be ordered from other larger danish libraries. Also, the personal library at MCI and of other students was a great resource. The reading course in first year was a great way to get a sampling of the design literature.

CON
My only comment is that the ACM was perhaps relied on too heavily. The ACM article style is often technical and lacks detail or reflection about the design process. They're just too short. There are some gems in the database (e.g. cultural probes), but you really have to sift through a lot of junk to find them. I wish the classic books (e.g. the reflective practitioner, plans and situated actions, designing engineers) were as easier to access as the less profound online resources.

Video
PRO
Video captured me in these two years. I wrote my thesis on using video in the design process, and really I can't imagine life without it. There was a great tradition of using video in the design process at MCI and it was inspiring.

CON
I still feel there are some style issues that could be worked out. I felt that there was no structure with how we used video and I would have liked that. Again, do I need to make all the same mistakes and then just reflect on the screw-ups? Wouldn't it be nice to build on successes and failures so that we collectively go further? In particular, video editing seems unexplored. Everyone has radically different styles, and i would like to have a discussion about what works, what doesn't and why. I would think having an assignment where everyone has to edit the same raw footage would be extremely interesting. Which projects turn out better and why?

Writing
PRO
We wrote quite a few papers in the course. That is good practice, and good experience. For me, writing is the hardest work there is. But, nothing beats the feeling of organizing all those tangled mess of ideas in your mind. Writing also seems to capture the reflective and research aspets of design.

CON
People in the programme often mistook "english" for "writing". The assumption is that because I was the only native speaker in the class, writing for me was easy. Not true. Of course the specifics of english are easier for me, but the hard part of writing is not the grammar, but the ideas. Deciding what you want to say, and how you are going to say it is the hard part. I would have liked to look more at the craft of writing. Looking at the different ways of telling stories. How do we engage the reader? Are there some tricks or tips that we can share with each other? We spent some time analyzing and writing instructions, and that helped us when we had to write instructions for our design games. I would like to do the same thing with posters, speeches, email, etc. Maybe even we could have a reading group where we just read and discuss beautiful examples of prose.



For more information about the IT Product Design programme see:

Mads Clausen Institute for Product Innovation
-- http://www.mci.sdu.dk/

IT Product Design
-- http://www.it-products.sdu.dk/

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