Interaction Design Institute Ivrea
Encyclopedia
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (also known as Interaction Ivrea, IDII or Ivrea) was a graduate school in the field of Interaction Design
Interaction design
In design, human–computer interaction, and software development, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main...

 operating in the town of Ivrea
Ivrea
Ivrea is a town and comune of the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley , it straddles the Dora Baltea and is regarded as the centre of the Canavese area. Ivrea lies in a basin that, in prehistoric times, formed a great lake...

, in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.
The school director was Gillian Crampton Smith, and the school's mission was described in Blueprint as "While following in the spirit of the CRD course, Ivrea will explore business in addition to design and technology. Crampton Smith believes that today there is an "art" in
imagining new business models, and is also aware that, partly because of their broad education, design graduates often move in to strategic roles in companies and need to be equipped to learn for themselves." (CRD refers to the original Computer Related Design master course in interaction design at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

, London. It is now called Design Interactions.).

The school operated from 2001

to 2005

, finally merging its teaching programme with Domus Academy and subsequently ceasing operating as an independent entity when its initial 5-year endowment ran out; the new Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia is the largest Italian telecommunications company, also active in the media and manufacturing industries. Now a private concern listed on the Borsa Italiana, it was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was...

 ownership decided not to renew the funding. Its exhibition design unit (E1) was spun off to form an independent company, , currently operating in Milan. Among the academic advisors of Interaction Ivrea were leading practitioners and theorists like John Maeda, Joy Mountford, John Thackara
John Thackara
John Thackara is founder and Director of The Doors of Perception . This event production company organises festivals in Europe and India in which grassroots innovators work with designers to imagine sustainable futures - and take practical steps to realize them...

, Bill Verplank
Bill Verplank
William Verplank is a designer and researcher who focuses on interactions between humans and computers. He is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University's CCRMA and is involved in Stanford's D-school. He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and product design from...

, , Bill Moggridge
Bill Moggridge
William Moggridge, an industrial and interaction designer, is co-founder of the Silicon Valley-based design firm IDEO and the current director of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. He designed what was the first laptop computer, the GRiD Compass...

 (co-founder of IDEO
IDEO
IDEO is an international design and innovation consultancy founded in Palo Alto, California, United States with other locations in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich, Shanghai, and Singapore, as well as Mumbai, Seoul, and Tokyo. The company helps design products, services,...

) and David Liddle
David Liddle
David Liddle is co-founder of Interval Research Corporation, consulting professor of computer science at Stanford University, and credited with heading development of the groundbreaking Xerox Star computer system. He has served on the board of many corporations. He was chair of the board of...

 (co-founder of Interval Research).
Interaction Ivrea has exhibited work at the Victoria and Albert's museum in London and at Salone del Mobile in Milano. It was part of the Convivio Network of Excellence European research project.

While the Institute also did a measure of outside consulting work and hosted visiting researchers, its main activity was the Interaction Design Master course, which graduated four classes of approximately 20 students each over its existence. Graduates of Interaction Ivrea now work throughout the design spectrum. The institute was involved in many projects that later became very visible in the design world: among them, the prototyping boards Wiring
Wiring (development platform)
Wiring is an open source electronics prototyping platform composed of a programming language, an integrated development environment , single-board microcontroller documentation thoughtfully created with designers and artists in mind and a community where experts, intermediate and beginners from...

 and Arduino
Arduino
Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR...

, the graphics software prototyping
Software prototyping
*Software prototyping, refers to the activity of creating prototypes of software applications, i.e., incomplete versions of the software program being developed...

 environment Processing
Processing (programming language)
Processing is an open source programming language and integrated development environment built for the electronic arts and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching the basics of computer programming in a visual context, and to serve as the foundation for electronic sketchbooks...

 (started at the MIT MediaLab), the CICCIO inflatable
Inflatable
An inflatable is an object that can be inflated with a gas, usually with air, but hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are also used. One of several advantages of an inflatable is that it can be stored in a small space when not inflated, since inflatables depend on the presence of a gas to maintain their...

 environment and the Interaction Design Primer design manual. Ivrea alumni and ex-faculty now work in places like Domus Academy
Domus Academy, Postgraduate School of Design
Domus Academy is an international postgraduate school of design based in Milan, Italy. Domus Academy offers master courses and advanced short courses in the field of design, fashion, architecture, interior design and management. It was founded in 1982 as the first institutionalized school in Milan...

, IDEO
IDEO
IDEO is an international design and innovation consultancy founded in Palo Alto, California, United States with other locations in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich, Shanghai, and Singapore, as well as Mumbai, Seoul, and Tokyo. The company helps design products, services,...

, Iuav University of Venice, VCU
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...

, the Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...

. Interaction Design Institute Ivrea alumni have set up the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design is a postgraduate school and consultancy based in Copenhagen which focuses on the area of Interaction Design. It was launched in 2007 and recently completed its Pilot Year programme in an attempt to establish a full-time Masters course in the field...

.
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