Hasta La Ideas

pimg alt=”austincenterfordesign-logo6.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/austincenterfordesign-logo6.jpg” width=”468″ height=”153″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pemThe a href=”http://www.austincenterfordesign.com/”Austin Center for Design/a is a new school aiming to bridge social entrepreneurship and interaction design. Core77 asks Jon Kolko, the school’s director, to fill us in on what’s coming up for September./em /p

pbCore77: We are excited about the new school you’ve started, the Austin Center for Design. Can you tell us more about it?/bbr /
Jon Kolko: The Austin Center for Design [AC4D] is a school intended to teach interaction design and social entrepreneurship. I have some lofty goals for the school: to transform society through design and design education. My vision is that the hard work and dedication that designers put into making physical products, digital artifacts, and strategy work for the Fortune 500 can be redirected towards large scale social concerns, and that new business models can be created to make this redirection of talent sustainable for all involved. /p

pbC77: How would you describe the overlap/relationship between interaction design and social entrepreneurship? How do they inform and benefit one another? Why is it important to teach them together?/bbr /
JK: I take a broad view of interaction design, which is the design of behavior. Interaction design is typically conflated with computing and digital design, and many interaction design solutions have a digital component. But interaction design has a strong history as a discipline focused on behavioral change. And from this perspective, it’s the perfect pairing for social entrepreneurship. This form of design is starting to get tremendous respect in business as a strategic differentiator, as interaction designers are typically good at holding complex problems in their heads and considering the repercussions of a small change in a larger system. Social entrepreneurs are thinking about new ways to drive social change while considering new business models and financial structures. In both cases, skills like facilitation, complex system modeling, and physical and digital prototyping are critical. /p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/2010/03/kickit.jpg” width=”468″ height=”170″ alt=”kickit.jpg”//div

pemKick It, designed by Stefanie Danhope-Smith, is a program to “quit smoking as easily as you started.”/em/p

pbC77: Can you describe the curricular structure of the school? What degrees are being offered?/bbr /
JK: The program is supportive of multiple disciplinesmdash;it’s not intended only for designers, but instead for anyone that is interested in learning the process of social innovation. I’ve had a lot of interest from designers, but also with computer scientists, engineers, marketers, and artists. Students who complete the program receive a certificate in interaction design and social entrepreneurship, and my intention is to seek accreditation within five years in order to offer graduate-level design degrees. /pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/education/the_austin_center_for_design_qa_with_jon_kolko_16302.asp”(more…)/a
pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/znAfvACeaZzO_e_b_rPEq6D0bn8/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/znAfvACeaZzO_e_b_rPEq6D0bn8/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/
a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/znAfvACeaZzO_e_b_rPEq6D0bn8/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/znAfvACeaZzO_e_b_rPEq6D0bn8/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/p