nundroo

Interaction Design Institute Ivrea

First, I will move to Italy in September 2004 — pretty soon indeed. Back in April 2004 I applied to go to Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy. I had my doubts. My formal education is not in art, nor design, nor development, not even computer science. I am an economist. I am supposed to talk about stock markets, big mergers, corporate finance, strategy, management and why the bubble burst back in March 2000.

Follow your passion with
dedication and talent and
money will follow.

I am glad that I have a masters degree in economics. It has brought me nothing but good things. A career as a banker or consultant was waiting for me. Follow the greed, money and success. Ironic? Cynic? Maybe, but I had the privilege to experience corporate environments first hand. There are a lot of great companies out there — do not get my wrong. But personally I had to make a choice between following the money or following my passion. Follow your passion with dedication and talent and money will follow. I still [want to] believe in that tenet.

Becoming an interaction designer

Everything I know about (interaction) design, usability, web development, information architecture I have learnt in my moments not being busy with economics or stock markets. Reading books, reading web sites (too many to list), dissecting code and design of other talented people. But how does one go from economics and the corporate world to design, while also keeping in mind that my level of education asked for a challenge, not something I would succeed at easily? It is a question that tormented me for about 4 years. Should I just stick to my fate and the fact that design was just a hobby? Would I be the kind of manager or banker that was secretely a painter but never dared to follow his passion? You control your own destiny. Plus I am young and have abolutely nothing to lose. No guts, no glory.

My decision was made. Design it was. It could not be anything else. I took the time to do some research and see what graduate degrees were available in the field of interaction design. That is when I stumbled across Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. I made a phone call. My background was not a problem, they look for talent and people that understand design and its role in our society (an undergraduate degree was mandatory, however.) With that positive thought in mind I got my act together and worked extremely hard to get my application ready with all the material I could possibly show. I was nervous — very nervous. Only 25 people get accepted every year and god knows how many applications they receive. But I knew I did the best I could. And, as you all now know, everything ended in an extremely positive note.

What I will be doing

So, what is it I will be doing? That is a tough question to answer in a few lines. I am sure I will be better able to answer it with more relevancy once I see some action. But let me nevertheless give it a go. In a nutshell I will be studying design in the high technology field, from computers to mobile phones and from operating systems to interactive clothing. Yet, I will also apply my knowledge of business to design. I always like to refer to it the “business of design” and “the design of business.” Design and business are two fields that may not seem close, but upon further inspection share some similarities. More importantly they can learn from each other.

Stimulating environment

Interaction Ivrea is a stimulating environment where leaders in the industry, such as Don Norman, John Maeda, Nathan Shedroff, Molly Steenson and Peter Morville, among others, have taught and spoken. I feel privileged to be part of it all very soon. Hoping to be a leader myself one day, but foremost just enjoy myself. Is that cool or what?

This article can not be discussed in public Comments turned off  contact the author

Comments are off

Unfortunately you can not discuss this article at this time. Some subjects are not suited for public debate for different reasons not necessarily stated by the author. If you feel like sending feedback, remarks or comments — please send an email. But please remember that the author may not be able to reply individually to every message.

Copyright © 2004 Didier Hilhorst. All Rights Reserved.

Remember that this is a personal web site — its content does not reflect the position or opinion of my respective employers or academic institutions.

Syndication — RSS 2.0 XML  Atom 0.3 Feed