Abstract

Due to the incredible increase in both product and system complexity that the use of advance technology enables, it is more important than ever for industrial designers to step up and engage more directly with interaction design—the design discipline focused on the design of the behaviors between products, systems and humans. In school, the changes in technology are also forcing design educators to rethink the role of design education with respect to both the integrity and suitability of current design curriculum. As the focus of product design has shifted from the physical functionality and aesthetics to user interfaces, and finally to the ubiquitous interactive paradigms, industrial design students must have a solid appreciation of Interaction Design topics to succeed. Understanding Interaction Design will allow industrial designers to create products that are usable by everyone, extending the impact of user-product interaction and communication to a diverse set of users within many domains. Yet industrial design educators continue to struggle with some key issues of their discipline. Therefore, this study is sought to figure out a better way for teaching/ learning Interaction Design in the discipline of Industrial Design. In this paper a parameter-oriented Interaction Design methodology is being proposed and applied to Industrial Design education. Specific examples of approaches integrated into a graduate-level Interaction Design course will be illustrated.