Stanford’s D-School has a very interesting interface design course. Unlike most computer interface design classes, which are constrained by the keyboard, mouse, and screen, the course explore ‘beyond-desktop’ interface design. The course, called tangible user interfaces, or “TUI” for short, combines theory with a design studio. Students not only study design theories, but also build prototypes of their designs. The idea is to not just talk about ideas, but also really design something new. Only by turning an idea into concrete form can students see the possibilities of their ideas. It helps student to think about the physical affordances of interfaces and translate them to the digital world.

The Royal College of Art in London also provides a unique joint two-year double Masters with The Imperial College London.  All graduates of this program receive an MA from the RCA and an MSc plus a Diploma from The Imperial College London. It is a fascinating program where students in the first year develop basic skills, and in the second year, students complete two long self-initiated projects; a group project and a solo project. I really like project-based approaches to learning. During the first year students elect into one of three learning strands:

Design for Manufacturing: DFM is core IDE territory and is about delivering innovative products to the market that work.
Experimental Design: EXP is for design innovation at a fundamental level, which may incorporate the exploration of new technologies, new product categories or new contexts.
Design Enterprise: DE is about the commercial elements around a product – the effective design and launch proposal of a new business venture, system or service.

So what are the best design schools? I’ve written a lot about the best business schools, here’s what I think about design schools. I’ll start with US schools. I’ll include the best US schools for product design as well as specialties like transportation, fashion and advertising etc

Rhode Island School of Design – this is the top school, a good balance between art and design. Most prestige and Rhode Island is nice;
Cranbrook – treats design very seriously, good theoretical training and applying the highest standard;
University of Cincinnati- solid and affordable, great co-op program, well respected;
Art Center College of Design- rigorous program, great reputation, good alumni network, strong in industrial design, photography and transportation too;
Cleveland Institute of Art- relatively inexpensive, very friendly and caring faculty, doesn’t have the brand names like others;
College for Creative Studies- highly networked and mostly within the auto industry;
Columbus College of Art and Design- great value for money;
Academy of Art College- advertising design school as its core, emphasis on practical skills. San Francisco is popular choice for designers;
Pratt- more of an art school than design school. Great network because of the NY thing.  Strong ID and interactive dept. Good graduate programs;
Parsons – great fashion, illustration and interior design programs. NY for fashion, that’s makes sense. Good network too;
Rochester Institute of Technology – a lot of emphasis on functional training with the latest tools;
Savannah – advertising and digital arts are their strengths.

Tony Hawk's Project 8: One of the many, many games in the Tony Hawk video game franchise

The franchise, while extremely successful, was in need of a ‘reboot’ of sorts.  It had explored all the available terrain and the development team was looking for a way to bring something new to the franchise.  What they arrived at, was a skateboard peripheral to play the game that more closely paralleled the act of skateboarding in real life.  What they created was a peripheral that forced the user to act in a very similar fashion to a skateboarder in order to be successful in the game.  The end product is a very slick, functional peripheral that allows a fairly capable skater to jump right in and get the hang of the game fairly quickly.  What I find perhaps even more interesting than the end result however, is the interim stage that allowed the developers to truly believe that the idea was a viable one that would catch on in the mainstream, similar to the insanely popular Guitar Hero franchise and Rockband franchise.

The Tony Hawk Ride Prototype

While at first glance, it would be very easy to dismiss this prototype as the garbage Frankenstein of a video game obsessed skateboarder, the sheer beauty lies in it’s ability to forgo any sort of attention to physical beauty.  The prototype’s ugliness belies the fact that is doing its job and collecting all the necessary sensory information to fine tune and prove that the idea is viable.  Sensors instead of wheels capture weight distribution information, buttons on key areas of the grip tape capture information relative to feet positioning for both tricks and just general riding.  The prototype isn’t complex.  It’s down and dirty, composed of elements that the developers had at their studio, not sent away for manufacturing at some third party.  This allows them to efficiently use their time and have more time to gather information and refine the product use before moving to more final prototype designs.  Whenever I see prototypes like this, I’m reminded of a design school example that was constantly brought up.  When designers went to improve the scalpel for surgeons, they didn’t use expensive prototypes, but rather a couple pencils with some elastics.  Using these low tech prototypes, they were able to mock up the best angle for the surgeon to handle precisely, and with longevity in mind.  The stripped down nature of the prototypes allows designers to quickly and easily get results, iterate the design based on the feedback, and quickly move the design forward.  None of those would be possible without the ‘ugly’, low tech approach to prototyping.