The week before last I attended a small conference sponsored by Microsoft Research Cambridge called Less is More - simple computing in an age of complexity. While both Bill Buxton and Scott Jenson did fabulous keynote presentations, I came away a bit disappointed in what I experienced over the two days.
I was the only person there not from a University or involved in some kind of way with a University. Now as far I was concerned this forum was a great opportunity for disparate people to come together and talk about the issues we are faced with the future of interaction design. But just having a room full of academics pontificating about this and that falls way too short of a genuinely interesting debate. Why was there not more designers here? Why were there not more people from other disciplines? It seemed to me that it was a very blinkered view - if you didn�t have a load of qualifications in the field of HCI then you pretty much didn�t count. And that�s very sad.
So as I left I felt pretty fired up. I thought this has to change. And I want to help change it. I have a lot of friends who are doing incredible stuff in this area - and practically none of them have any kind of formal qualifications. What they do have is a passion and a desire to change things. And that to me is the single most important qualification anybody can ever hope to have.
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hear hear..
yeah I wish a straight talking designer like yourself was on the panel discussion on the last day.
There was an artist there (perhaps the only other non academic) and she made a valid suggestion about these disparate groups getting together and ‘making things’- as an alternative way of discussing issues- as opposed to the whole ‘let me and my reputation lecture you on what I think’ modus operandi.
sadly her comment, almost went way over everyones head and she didnt get a single approving clap from the audience.
Iman / 08/05/2005