Ten years with Interaction Design
News: Sep 29, 2011
The master programme in Interaction Design celebrated ten years by throwing a party and invite everyone who has studied the programme. At the same time the new facilities were inaugurated.
Around 400 students have passed through the programme during the years and they all received an invitation in the mail. Olof Torgersson, programme manager, tells that about 150 participants registered for the event.
When the programme started in 2001, it was as an education within Human-Computer-Interaction. It was a year and a half and consisted of four courses and the thesis work. It was given in Swedish and 36 students from various educational backgrounds made up the first class. Today the programme runs over two years and is given in English. It consists of four different specializations and 17 courses. More than 50 students from several different countries are studuying the programme.
No one knew what interaction design was
Staffan Björk has been teaching on the programme since the beginning. He explains that when IT was used more frequently at people's work and when it started to be a greater part of people's everyday life, it became clear that there was a need for well educated students who were experts at creating systems and products that were easy to use and that were created to fulfill the end user's need. And that is why the programme was developed.
Sus Lundgren also teaches on the programme and is one of the students in the first class who graduated.
- At that time no one knew what interaction design was, she explains.
It is different today. There is an increased focus on interaction design, as well as on social media, entertainment and new products. The programme has gone through a renewal process and this semester's students are the first ones on the programme called "Interaction Design and Technologies”.
- When Chalmers did a review of all master programmes we took the opportunity to take a closer look at and improve our education, tells Sus Lundgren.
The programme was renewed in order to give the students the knowledge and skills required to meet the demands of the new job market. Four different specializations were created with focus on user interfaces and information visualization, tangible interaction, entertainment, games and social media and a track for game developers with some experience of gameplay design and interaction design.
The participants at the ten year anniversary party were also given two lectures by Jonas Linderoth from the Department of education, communication and learning at the University of Gothenburg and by Mathias Klang from the Department of Applied IT who, together with Sus Lundgren, is teaching the course ”Interaction design of social media” at the programme.