Interactions - September/October 2009

Amid such a display of polymorphous technological perversity, one might well ask what any of this has to do with preparing graduates for the job market. “These economic times apply a pressure to become more vocational,” O’Sullivan acknowledges. But ITP is holding firm to its philosophy of preserving creative freedom in a technology world often fixated on producing measurable outcomes. The school’s philosophy evokes a more Arcadian school of thought, one in which the pursuit of creative expression trumps the demands of industry. No doubt many of these students, after they go to work in the industry, will one day look back fondly on the freedom they enjoyed in ITP’s digital sandbox.

A few blocks away on 13th Street, Parsons Design School offers an MFA in communication design and technology. In contrast to ITP’s loosely structured curriculum, Parsons requires students to take a foundational course in interface design, then choose from one of three concentrations: interactive, narrative, or computation. Within each concentration, the program emphasizes a traditional approach to design education with lots of studio time and opportunities for critique.

Like ITP, Parsons offers plenty of room for personal creativity, encouraging students to explore social and artistic themes in addition to more applied projects. Recent student thesis projects have ranged from a mobile application to support outpatient health services in the developing world to an experimental video installation that draws parallels between Little Red Riding Hood and an oppressed Muslim woman,

Together, ITP and Parsons constitute the closest thing to an educational establishment for interaction design in the city–long-running programs with substantial enrollment and a track record of turning out highly employable graduates. And while each school differs slightly in approach, they share a common purpose in trying to create a supportive environment for students to follow their creative instincts while developing marketable skills.

At the northern tip of Greenwich Village on 14th Street, Pratt Institute is exploring an altogether different approach to design education, by cross-pollinating two once disparate disciplines: library science and graphic design.

As library science programs across the country
struggle to reinvent themselves in the Internet age,
many are closing down or recasting themselves as
“iSchools” in the mode of UC-Berkeley. While Pratt

has committed to preserving its foundations in traditional librarianship, many of its recent graduates have found themselves leaving the library field after graduation to take on roles as information architects or, in some cases, interaction designers.

Recognizing this trend toward nontraditional career paths for library school graduates, Pratt’s library school dean, Tula Giannini, spotted an opportunity. Situated within a school best known for its design programs, Pratt seemed uniquely positioned to experiment with its curriculum at the intersections between the information sciences and design.

“There’s going to be a need for high-level digital skills that go beyond navigation and usability,” explains Giannini, “to the creative side of illuminating meaning: revealing content and relationships in an interactive, participatory, conversational environment.” In other words, librarians need to learn to think like designers.

Starting this year, Pratt students will be able to pursue a combined degree in library science and digital arts, drawing on the school’s deep well of graphic design training in addition to the library school’s growing emphasis on topics like usability and information architecture.

How will the traditional, left-brained library curriculum converge with the design school’s more right-brained, experiential approach? No one knows quite yet. The first dual master’s degree student will enroll this fall.

All three of these schools have embarked on uncertain paths, trying to prepare tomorrow’s digital designers for a world of constantly evolving forms. How all of this will play out is anyone’s guess. But if there’s one thing interaction designers ought to be good at, it’s living with uncertainty. “Everything here is a prototype,” says Danzico. “This is version 0.1.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex Wright is the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He has led user experience design initiatives for the New York Times, Yahoo!, Microsoft, IBM, Harvard University, and the Long Now Foundation, among others. His writing has appeared in Salon.com, the

Christian Science Monitor, Harvard Magazine, and other publications. He writes regularly about technology and design at http:// www.alexwright.org.