IxD at CCA: Freshman Through Sophomore Year

Mustafaa Tajuddin
Aug 27, 2017 · 4 min read

In 2015, I traveled from Selma, Alabama to California to begin studying Interaction Design at the California College of the Arts (CCA). The cool winds in Oakland surprised me; I had previously spent the summer in hot, humid Alabama and couldn’t imagine such pleasant (sorta unbearably chilly) summer weather. I arrived a week before classes began and this allowed me to explore the San Francisco Bay Area and interact with the year’s incoming class during CCA’s Orientation Week.

I tried to do everything possible in the Bay Area during my Freshman Year at CCA. I went to events like Oakland’s First Friday and Google’s Founder World Conference. I continued to meet cool, interesting people from around the world. I participated in CCA’s Honor’s Program. Lake Merritt in Oakland hosted my morning reflection walks. I hiked in Marin County. I networked like crazy. I seized every opportunity presented to me!

The classes I took freshman year weren’t really noteworthy. However, I took a model-making class that was great! The professor assigned us a group project that challenged to make a portable shelter from cardboard. That project is one of my favorite projects I have worked on and I still show off photos of our cardboard shelter.

The summer after freshman year at CCA provided more time for personal interests. I was able to get involved in the Bay Area community by interning for state senator Scott Weiner on his campaign for California State Senate. One of the most memorable moments from his campaign was training union workers on how to phone bank. I re-wrote the phone bank script after noticing the union workers’ struggle reading the generic copy of the first phone script. The new script was easier to read and more conversationally natural which increased the union workers’ believability.

Sophomore Year allowed me to further develop my skills in Interaction Design. I took the following classes: Design Research, Prototyping, Visual Design, WearTech, Systems, and Story. Each class presented different problems to solve but they all forced me to grow as a thinker and designer.

My Design Research class taught me the why and how behind design research. I learned the importance of qualitative and quantitative research methods in understanding problems and phenomena. We were assigned large projects that provided us the opportunity to learn how to conduct user interviews, write effective questionnaires/surveys, find survey participants, conduct remote user research methods, and use software to aid the research process.

In Prototyping we learned various physical and digital methods for prototyping ideas. We learned how to laser cut materials for quickly assembling physical prototypes. Our professor encouraged us to be scrappy and to source materials from unconventional places in order to iterate quickly. He encouraged us to not focus too much on creating pretty objects. We were instructed to execute our ideas for our prototype’s form and functionality, test those ideas and then quickly create new versions of our prototypes based on user feedback and/or test failures.

Visual Design was a course that taught me how to make things pretty. That was a joke but visual design did teach me how to create compelling, attractive designs. The course also taught about the connection between color, layout, and psychology. Throughtout the course we were tasked with creating UI designs, style tiles (like a brand mood board), and finally an entire brand identity/guide.

WearTech was an amazing course co-taught by Kyle Chan and Anouk Wipprecht (an amazing designer who has created wearable garments with/for brands such as Autodesk and Microsoft). We learned about materials that facilitate wearable garments such as conductive threads and fabrics. Kyle taught us how to sew garments and really gave us critical instruction on the methods required for creating wearable garments. For our final project we were split into teams based on five to six technology themes. I was in a team that was interested in robotic garments. Our team was a bit large but we worked well together and provided our talents where they fit best in the design process.

For our final project Anouk proposed an opportunity to collaborate with artist, Mirabelle Jones, for our final project. Most of her work revolves around street harassment and Mirabelle asked us to create a garment that would speak to that theme. We brainstormed together and decided to create two separate garments. I think this allowed us to explore two different designs while also keep all team members involved in the design process. (I should dedicate another post just to this project haha).

Systems class, taught by Peter Stahl, was probably my favorite IxD class so far. This class was a constant validation of my thoughts on various aspects of society. After finishing the course I was able to better define systemic problems and develop models to discover solutions to complex and dynamic issues. I now can fix any mess.

In Story, we worked on projects that allowed us to better understand the role of narratives in the design process. For one of the class’ projects we collaborated with architecture firm, StudioGang, to gather qualitative data. It was a great experience and we learned how to plan and execute a research project. (I will dedicate a separate post to thoroughly describe the project and my experience.)

I am now going into my Junior Year in the Interaction Design program at CCA (woo!). This year I have a new set of classes that will cover topics such as Virtual Reality and User Behavior. I will also begin searching for an internship and preparing for a review of my work at the end of the year. This year will be full of new adventures, learning opportunities and traveling. Junior year here I come!

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I’m in some sort of reality. IxD at California College of the Arts.

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