A Designer’s Thanksgiving 2008

Last year, I wrote up an Interaction Designer’s Thanksgiving. That was a more general list of what we should be thankful for always. This year, I want to focus on what we designers should be thankful for this past year. So, without further ado, here’s my list:

The Recession. Yes, the recession. As we all know, there is nothing like a constraint to focus the mind, and the economy has become a huge design constraint for companies big and small. With the lens of cold, hard economics, it’s often not hard to tell which ideas truly have merit and deliver value for users and clients alike.

Innovation as a Priority for the new US Administration. The Obama team has convened a policy group on innovation, probably focusing on green technology. Nice to see some governmental love coming our way.

Designers are Doing It for Themselves. Nice too, that we aren’t waiting for the government to do our jobs for us, with initiatives like the US National Design Policy Summit (where was IxDA?).

Green is a Go. And speaking of green technology, being eco-friendly (or at least eco-aware) has definitely, finally entered the national discourse. Encouraging our clients (and ourselves) to design green should be easier. Sustainability is moving from a buzzword to simply being part of how we do the work.

First Interaction Design Conference a Success. An awesome first conference for IxDA. Looking forward to next year!

A Niche Conference for Everyone. In fact, this was the year seemingly a million conferences bloomed. Whatever your flavor of design, you could go somewhere and be entertained and informed in person.

Good New Blogs. Some design blogs started that are worth following: Designers Review of Books, InspireUX, and the Cooper Journal.

Technology is Interesting Again. Advances this year in interactive surfaces (some of which are open source and can be built by you. Yes, you.), open-source mobile platforms, laptop and mobile touchscreens, and really, a whole bunch of cool stuff. It wasn’t all social networks and iPhone apps this year, although some of those were great too.

Twitter is (Mostly) Stable. ‘Nuff said.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone (no matter what country you’re in)!

This was written by Dan Saffer. Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008, at 12:37 pm. Filed under Inspiration. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.