Today, the natural light student brought to you by natural light is a student who has gone from zero foundation to major and still won the wonderful experience of CMU interaction design offers. Our hero today, student Yuan, is an undergraduate electrical engineering major who has gone from zero foundation to major, but it took 10 months to receive five offers, including the first CMU in the United States! CMU of Carnegie Mellon University, SVA of New York School of Visual Arts, RIT of Rochester Institute of Technology, PARSONS of Parsons School of Design, CCA of California Institute of Arts.

It is also her wish to change the world with technology. She chose to use interaction design to explore the relationship between human and nature, and between individuals and communities. Her design focuses on how to help people live with interesting interactions. What kind of strength does her interaction design work focus on? What's her different thinking about interaction design? Today, let's follow the learning process of the source students to explore the secrets of the training of CMU interaction design portfolio from zero to professional!

　　 "The foundation of design starts from summer courses"

　　 Tutor interview

"When Yuan first came here, she gave me the impression that she was timid. She expressed her concern about her own zero foundation and the production of interaction design works, but I also heard her full enthusiasm and determination for interaction design in her words. Because Yuan had never been exposed to design or art related courses in her previous education process, and she wanted to apply for the interdisciplinary subject of interaction design, which has high basic requirements, her concern was that I could fully understand.

But compared with some other design majors who study interaction design, I think her situation is optimistic. First of all, the source student has a basic science and engineering knowledge about designing functions and codes. Second, she has no stereotype about traditional art students who study in the direction of "designing beautiful interfaces". Therefore, after I discussed with the source students, the customized course plan is to first supplement the understanding of relevant software and interaction concepts, establish the correct design ideas, and then immediately practice from the actual project through the centralized training camp project. "

　　 First work

At the beginning of the basic design course, Yuan was not very comfortable in the early stage, because the natural light, like the courses in foreign universities, took the form of studio, which she had never met in the past. With the help of her teacher, she slowly built confidence and realized her advantages. She also maintained an optimistic attitude in the following courses, which also laid the foundation for her summer training camp.

The first project in the work collection of source students was completed in the summer class. This is an interdisciplinary course. The team members include students from landscape design, graphic design, interaction design and other disciplines. The goal of the course is to plan and design an abandoned park in Beijing based on human behavior and needs.

Although Yuan's design ability was relatively weak, she was willing to contribute her own ability. She made many attempts in the early research and practice process and soon found her own position in the group, which was also recognized by everyone.

The theme of Yuan's work is "Interaction Park". She tries to regard this area as an "interface" for interaction between people and nature, individuals and communities, and helps landscape design students understand people's interaction needs through interactive design research.

The result finally included in the CMU interaction design works is that the park is turned into an interactive "life" with various interactive game settings. For example, the navigation system in the park is designed as a game like a millionaire, so that people can feel considerate and happy atmosphere in every link after entering the park.

　　 "Interdisciplinary projects are the winning principle"

　　 Tutor interview

"The first two projects in the source student's work collection were completed in summer classes, and many students will find it difficult to find good projects or get a systematic improvement in this 7-15 day short-term course. But in fact, this kind of course is very advantageous for the cross major, zero foundation students like the source students. First, because the source students are late in school, there is less time left to refine the basic courses. This short-term focused course can quickly help her establish correct design ideas and solve the students' professional weaknesses in the short term.

In addition, overseas art colleges and universities actually emphasize the idea of interdisciplinary study abroad, and we have always taken the guidance of interdisciplinary study abroad portfolio as our teaching basis. In the summer studio program, students exchange and learn from each other in an interdisciplinary environment, and the teachers are experienced professors or former admissions officers, They are very clear about what kind of works can impress and review teachers, and can help students establish clear goals and correct guidance.

At the same time, students in all majors have always been in the studio environment. When doing interdisciplinary projects in this interdisciplinary atmosphere, students will be very happy to contribute their strengths. In an efficient learning state, it not only greatly improves students' professional ability, but also can harvest high-quality works in a short time. "

　　 Second work

The second project of the source student was also completed in another summer class. Because the source student has zero foundation, she is not only weak in art design, but also lacking in creative thinking and idea diffusion. While making up for basic skills, she also participated in group/studio projects to help her solve this problem in a short time.

The second summer course project is an innovative application design of blockchain technology. In this project, Yuan took full advantage of her undergraduate study of electrical engineering, designed a P2P energy trading mode, and built an O2O service system based on charging stations and combined with mobile applications.

This work is aimed at the characteristics of rich energy but sparse population in Inner Mongolia. It has sufficient geographical advantages to build an energy charging station. The shape of the entire charging station also borrows the form of a "yurt", which was named "egg" by students from the source.

　　 "The most useful advice is to learn to develop strengths and avoid weaknesses"

　　 Tutor interview

"In fact, the other two projects in the CMU interaction design works collection of the source students are very representative for students majoring in interaction design. They are both conceptual projects, and they have not even made a physical product appearance. They just put forward ideas and solutions, and then demonstrated it through a large number of experiments. In fact, there are many students working on concept projects in the interaction design major. Most of them will think that it is not important to land a concept project, as long as my idea is particularly attractive.

In fact, we should change the direction to think about this question. What is the focus of the college inspection? Do they just want to see an idea or do they want to see your process of solving problems with creativity? Of course, ideas and creativity are very important, but their significance is only to provide a good direction. What we need to do is to use a lot of practical research and data analysis to demonstrate that this scheme is feasible and prove that your design results can bring practical significance. "

　　 The third work

Yuan's third project is a project from conception to practice. Although she did not make a physical product appearance, she used EMG sensors to measure the real data through many experiments and made analysis and conversion through MetaLab, demonstrating the technical feasibility of the product.

At the same time, in order to make up for the weakness of the source students (basic part), the project did not focus on the product appearance and interface vision, but integrated the original professional expertise of the source students. In the work collection, the research and analysis, the design and testing of the prototype were taken as the highlighted parts. This work also maximizes the professional advantages and research ability of the source students.

　　 The fourth work

CMU of the source student Carnegie Mellon University The fourth project of is a social platform based on pet dating, called "Let your pet date today!". The case of Source Xuetong found that pet loneliness is becoming increasingly serious, so she wants to design a mobile phone software to solve the problem of pet friendship. The source students analyze their matching criteria rationally from the aspects of animal health, breed, character, behavior, etc., and then recommend the most suitable candidates for them according to big data.

The design of this work focuses on how to attract people to use the interesting interactive form. The work focuses on the various business models conceived by the source students around the product, and tests their rationality one by one. The interface vision of the product is still not the focus of the works of the source students.

　　 Teaching summary:

The background of students does not limit the scope of their choice of majors. Students must choose to change majors out of love and with full enthusiasm. What we need to do is to expand their interest, cultivate their confidence and find the most suitable learning methods for them.

Today, the natural light takes you to understand the CMU interactive design works of the original students. Interactive design is a cross field. Students of whatever background can fully explore and understand the relationship between their original majors and interactive design, such as knowledge fields, professional skills, thinking patterns, etc, Will be able to make a successful collection of works with personal characteristics!

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