Out with the old, in with the new

Authors: Richard Anderson
Posted: Mon, February 18, 2013 - 11:43:50

I've interviewed a lot of people on stage, sometimes individually, sometimes in pairs. Transcripts of three of my interviews of pairs were published as interactions cover stories. Two were published together—of Cliff Nass and Bill Buxton, and of Clement Mok and Jakob Nielsen; one was published by itself—of Don Norman and Janice Rohn.

I like the dynamics of an interview of two carefully matched people, and was pleased to return to that format relatively recently when I interviewed Don Norman and Jon Kolko—two major contributors to interactions—together at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. The title of the event: "Out with the Old, In with the New—A Conversation on Trends in the Overlap between Art, Business, and Design." Specific topics addressed included the nature of and the difference between art and design, whether design should be taught in art schools (such as AAU), Abraham Maslow, usability, what design (or all) education should be like, the problem with "design thinking" courses, the destiny of printed magazines and printed books, writing for interactions magazine, aging and ageism, the relationship between HCI and interaction design, Arduino, simplicity, social media, Google, privacy, design research, the context in which design occurs, the Austin Center for Design, solving wicked problems, whether designers make good entreprenuers, politics, Herb Simon and cybernetics, the strengths and weaknesses of interconnected systems, and how designers should position themselves.

The session was fabulous, so I've included the video of it here so more can learn and benefit from it. (A transcript of select highlights of the interview can be found in my blog.)