For most of the students of Interaction Design in my semester, it is the first studies they do in their life including me. So there’re a few things we weren’t sure how to handle. So our lecturer made sure we know how we have to read, write and present. It might sound very banal and some things are probably not new to anybody but still, it is very helpful to get started. Till now our studies are often times focused on practical work. This is going to change, although if you compare it to studies at a university it’s not quite the same.

Reading

Research before read

It’s a good practice to evaluate the information of the readings through research to the context. In this way, you can interpret the information critically.

Author

  • Location
  • Sex
  • Study -> School
  • Company -> Customers -> Stakeholders
  • Cultural Background
  • Context

Publisher

  • Year
  • Editor
  • Collection
  • Text Source Kind

Academic Paper

  • Bibliography
  • Supervisor
  • Context
  • Peer reviewer

Way to read

For newbies like us and especially for me it was a bit scary to read a lot. But it’s different compared to i.e. read a novel. Joelle (our lecturer) told us that it’s crucial to learn to read faster and to skim through the readings. Also, it’s important to find the parts of the readings which are important and not.

Sources academic Interaction Design papers

Write an Essay

An essay has to be structured in the following way:

First page

  • Titel
  • Author / Co-Authors
  • Class
  • School

Following Pages

  • Most contributed, 2nd, … (alphabetical order if the same contribution)
  • Advisors (alphabetical order)
  • Abstract (50-100 Words)
  • Keywords (i.e. Design, Methodology, Interaction…)
  • Intro
  • Chapters
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Date
  • Page Nr

References

Placed at the end of the essay

  • Type of References
    • Book
    • Book Chapter
    • Journal Article
    • Academic Paper
    • Online Publication

Syntax of Reference

The reference is usually placed right in the text where it was used. To explain it a bit better here an example.

Syntax last-name, second-name.year.title.Publisher.location

Example Norman, Donald.1988.The Design of Everyday Thins.Basic Books.New York

If it is an article instead of a book you will write the name of the article in quotes.

Present

Presentations are oftentimes very open and I guess most of us did it before. In my opinion, it’s an art to master but if you master it, it will be a powerful skill.

There are some general structures to consider in a slide presentation.

First slider

  • Title of presentation
  • Class
  • School
  • Date (usually month and year)
  • One line abstract

Second slider

  • Table of content

Pictures

  • Title
  • Who took it
  • Where it was published

Data

  • Where was the data collected
  • When
  • By whom

Conclusion

It’s a lot and it might look scary at the same time. But I think, it’s that bad but very important to be serious and be taken seriously about your work. Without that, your work won’t be as valuable as it should be.