bachelor of design computing & master of interaction design and ...

The Moment
Interaction design is about the moment.
The moment your body becomes in contact
with a device.
The moment the device responds to your
presence.
The moment an interface is produced between
you and the device.
Such are the moments of attract, relate and
sustain.
In an interconnected world, this becomes the
role of the designer, to articulate and construct
moments of encounter.
Sometimes you feel the moment of encounter.
Sometimes you hear the moment of encounter.
Sometimes you are the moment of encounter.
Sometimes you only bear witness to moments
of interactions between machines.
The designer is always there, though, shaping
the moment of encounter, even if the framing
of the encounter is only implied or suggested.
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It is commonly held that experience of a moment
is the provenance of the user, whether the user
is the reader of a literary work or the audience
at a play or, here, the user of an interactive
system. Reader-response theory, from the
literary arts, theorizes that meaning inheres
not in the text but in the reader or the reading
community. The range of actual experiences that
we can experience in any moment seems too
multifarious to be designed a priori. This makes
it important for designers to consider what it is
about moments of encounter that can be made
available and perceptible to us.
The projects described in this end-of-year
catalogue introduce a range of moments of
encounter. At times, you will need to implicate
yourself in the moment, as you are the trigger.
At times, you may deliberately and voluntarily
step back and allow the moment to just happen.
There are no instructions for how to become
part of the moment of interaction. The designers
have created framings, but who is under
apparent control of the moment is up to you
to decide.
Let yourself be attracted, related and sustained.
Andy Dong
Head of the Design Lab