🦆 Interaction Nerds by UXA | F23.14
The Last Issue: Other Clubs, Human-Art Interaction, and Things to Do Over Break!
👋 Announcements — The Last Issue
As the semester draws to a close, we wish everyone luck on your finals, happy holidays, and a wonderful break! Make sure to take a proper break and rest well before the spring semester hits us all. We’ll see you in January!
A note from Sophie McGrady, graduating Fall ‘23:
Hi! I’m Sophie, one of the writers for Interaction Nerds. As this is my last issue before I graduate, I wanted to write a short note to you all saying thank you for tuning in each week and giving us the opportunity to talk to fascinating people and research exciting topics relating to HCI! I started writing for Interaction Nerds in the Summer of 2022, and it’s been such a fun time bringing new content to you all each week along with the rest of UXA’s content team. I’m so excited to see where Interaction Nerds goes next! I know the team will continue putting out amazing content next semester and beyond, so be sure not to miss out!!
We’ll miss you so much Sophie!!!! Good luck with Duolingo, life, and everything beyond! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
🍎 Club Compass — Other Clubs!
Written & edited by: 🥸 Kaitlyn Ng
Looking for more design-centric opportunities on campus next semester? Read on to learn about other CMU clubs with a focus on UX!
🎨 Design for America (DFA @ CMU)
“a group of interdisciplinary students who use their unique design, engineering, and social sciences perspectives to confront social issues in innovative ways”
Join DFA to:
learn more about the human-centered design process
collaborate within a small diverse team to design a solution to a specific UX problem a community partner (YMCA, 412 Food Rescue) faces
utilize HCI and UX skills to enact meaningful social change
🐶 ScottyLabs (Design Committee)
“a student organization at CMU devoted to helping students learn about and explore interesting topics in technology”
Join ScottyLabs to:
develop and learn UX skills such as Figma prototyping and effective branding
gain experience cross-communicating with programmers in the Tech Committee
work on projects that develop opportunities for CMU students (ie. Tartan Hacks, Web Development Weekend)
🤖 Futurist Club
“a trans-disciplinary group focused on learning how to define preferred futures with intentionality at CMU”
Join Futurist Club to:
work on a semester-long client project conducting research → developing design sprints → creating a final deliverable to answer a specific design question
discuss and learn about futures design and systems thinking through seminars and speaker events
Want to find even more UX opportunities? Find out info on all clubs on campus here!
🍀 Editor’s Pick — Human-Art Interaction
Written & edited by: 😈 Sophie McGrady
How do you experience art? Are you an observer or a creator? Can you be both at the same time? Depending on how art is displayed, the interactions between the audience and the art can change and determine the types of experiences people have.
Different ways people and art can interact
There are four contexts that art can exist in, and each introduces a different kind of experience and level of interactivity for audience members.
🗿 Static: the art that does not adapt to the context. There is no interaction between audience members and the art piece that can be observed by another person. This is how people experience art in many art galleries and museums
⏰ Dynamic passive: the art does not adapt based on audience interaction but changes on its own over time
🛝 Dynamic interactive: “audiences play an active role and are given the ability to change the artwork”
🎆 Dynamic interactive (varying): these kinds of artworks are the same as dynamic interactive art but “each iteration of the art is unpredictable because it is continually influenced by the accumulation of user interaction”
Designing for new interactions, building new relationships
When people experience art, there are a number of different players and interactions that shape the experience. The main stakeholders include the artwork, the audience, the artist, and the environment. Each of these parties may interact with one another in different ways depending on the level of interactivity determined by the type of art exhibit. When considering interactive art that can be influenced by the audience, individuals take on the role of creator in addition to observer.
💖 “These experiences also have a deeper impact on audiences through allowing personalized expression and the creation of memorable, poetic, and immersive experiences” - Artistic Futures: Digital Interactive Installations
When designing exhibitions to foster and support specific interactions, it’s imperative to keep in mind these different relationships. How are individuals interacting with the artwork? How might the environment enhance this interaction? What new kinds of relationships come up between audience members?
User experience exists in all aspects of our lives, not just in how we interact with screens. When we design for any interaction, we should ask ourselves what experiences we want to prioritize and what less obvious kinds of relationships may be created during these experiences.
🎨 Everyone experiences art differently.
By designing for a wider range of interactions, designers can help more art reach more people in more ways, leading to meaningful and individualized connections both between people and art, and between the people appreciating the art.
🎯 Resource — Things to Do Over Break!
Written & edited by: 🕺 Arin Pantja & 🚐 Sherry Chen
Woohoo! It’s finally time for winter break. We know it’s recruiting season, but we all need some time to wind down too – taking breaks is also productive!
Here are some resources to help you take a well deserved break, and also design-related resources for the folks who want to dig deeper into various facets of design.
🍿 Here are some newly released movies you can watch in theatres!
🎬 The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki
🎬 Wonka by Paul King
🎬 Godzilla Minus One by Takashi Yamazaki
🧠 Still want to keep your brain cells working without feeling burnt out? Here are some design-related readings, as well as podcast recommendations from us and fellow industry designers we’ve spoken to:
📙 Making and Breaking the Grid – by Timothy Samara
📘 Type Matters – by Jim Williams
📗 The Illusion Of Life Disney Animation – by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
📕 Lenny’s Podcast – recommended by Felix Lee
📒 Design Beyond Devices: Creating Multimodal, Cross-Device Experiences! recommended and written by Cheryl Platz
📓 Thinking with Type, Health Design Thinking by Ellen Lupton – recommended by Zahin Ali
📔 Dieter Rams – for his clean, minimal designs – recommended by Shan Wang
Some books have the PDF version of them attached while others have Amazon links. I will personally be reading The Illusion Of Life Disney Animation.
🤔 Who’s behind the scenes?
The editors behind this week’s issue are 🥸 Kaitlyn Ng, 😈 Sophie McGrady, 🧸 Ahana Banerjee, 🕺 Arin Pantja, 🍳 Evelyn Lui, 🚐 Sherry Chen, 🐳 Alana Wu, and 🦝 Caleb Sun.
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